dennis scharnberg

running amok again

More three-word phrases:

—pack of cards

—skirt lifting episode

—old is new

—hormonally induced spasms

—that is all

—weapon of opportunity

—intractable feedback loop

—swarm of insects

—making ends meet

—going all out

Tessa Fielding and Constance Gogarty,  A Book of Lists.

tossing the dice

What does she dread, this charming creature?  Being merely a bit part in another’s tale.

Jonathan Steed,  Down Under.

flock of birds

Helen claimed—rather too proudly—that she had never thought in words.

Pryce Cummings,  Rattle Box.

spiraling ever downward

“It’s not a mystery, Beth.  Not at all.  And it is not amazing.  Not.  At.  All.”

Quentin Drabb,  Ebenezer’s Untold Tales.

so to bed

“It was infant mortality, Mr. Plowman.  I assure you.”

“At age thirty-six?”

“Yes, sir.”

Lana Dowling,  The Mystery of the Dull Parcels.

all together now

It’s that the lies are so familiar to them.  They jump into the whole mess as though stepping into a nice pair of boots.

Hill Boothby,  Essays on Disappointment Management.

let me know

“And down it all went,” said Elfwick in his softest voice.  “Like a mournful Buster Keaton, wondering what has happened.  All the way down to the pavement.”

Adrian Knowles,  Listen to Me.

over the moon

We know society—or civilization—as a continuous phenomenon.  We have yet to experience it on a sporadic basis.

Olmstead Trent III,  The History of Objects.

troll doll attititude

Answers  have  consequences.

Godfrey Tooke,  Collected Aphorisms.

venn diagram pleasantries

What the conspirator sees is planning (not conspiracy).

Desmond Urquhart,  The Unsocial Sciences.