"Joe Haubenreich" (removethis)swljoe-at-secretweaponlures.com wrote in
message ...
Glad you didn't end up (1) fried and/or (2) drowned. That would have put a
damper on things.

An excellent tale to start the day. It probably won't make the "This
Happened To Me" series, but I liked it anyway. And since you're an angler,
no one here would ever question the truth of your account. The Fisherman's
Code, you know....prevents us from ever doubting each others' stories. I
do
wonder, though... what happened to the fish that started this whole chain
of
events? Did the tacklebox float? What prevented you from emptying the
canoe
in 4 feet of water?

If you ever do want to punch up the retelling of this story... say, to
awe-struck grandchildren some day... here are a few suggestions, from an
old
hand at making a silk purse from a sow's ear:

Good Joe, very very good.

Although tempered by experience and age and knowledge, Joe's thought
provoking comments are snipped for brevity so the following additional
helpful suggestions could be added by Bruce to that wonderful Canoe
Incident:

For those of you who do not know, Bulwer-Lytton wrote The Last Days of
Pompeii, which opens with the famous line "It was a dark and stormy night."
Hence the contest.



These are the 10 winners of last year's Bulwer-Lytton contest (run by the
English Dept of San Jose State University), wherein one writes only the
first line of a bad novel.



Ed. Note: Bruce could select one or all of the following to help the story
as Joe suggested.



10) "As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in
the echo chamber he would never hear the end of it."



9) "Just beyond the Narrows the river widens."



8) "With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned,
unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue
eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for
competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied
description."



7) "Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept
along the East wall: 'Andre creep... Andre creep... Andre creep.'"



6) "Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was
about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become
the woman he loved."



5) "Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from
eeking out a living at a local pet store."



4) "Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins
often do."



3) "Like an over-ripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the
corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor."



2) "Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of
the word 'fear'; a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the
eye of death -- in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies."



AND THE WINNER IS...



1) "The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the
greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window,
revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in
frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her,
disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, 'You
lied!'"


You go, Bruce!!!

Good luck!
John