Reading time: Less than 1 minute
I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a 1940 simile from Edward R. Murrow.
When my husband and I were in Washington, DC earlier this month (in the rain, with all the public museums closed) we spent a truly enjoyable afternoon at the Newseum.
What a thrilling place! Granted, I have a background in journalism but even if I hadn’t, I know I would have enjoyed it. My husband (a sciences guy) was riveted by the fantastic display of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs. Have a look at some of them here. I particularly enjoyed the News Gallery filled with historic newspapers and magazines dating back hundreds of years.
And, the museum also gave me an utterly fantastic piece of figurative language — a simile — from none other than American broadcast journalist legend Edward R. Murrow. Here is what he said, describing the bombs dropping on London in 1940:
It was like a fistful of white rice on black velvet.
Isn’t that evocative? I listened to a recording of his broadcast — his gravelly voice making such poetry — and grabbed my smartphone so I could immediately take note of it.
