Monday, March 29, 2010

SAT time!

Speaking of Twitter... Last weekend I asked my Twitter followers and Facebook friends to complete my version of the iconic SAT question:

Finish the SAT question: Twitter is to writing as:________ is to _______?

The responses ran the gamut, ranging from the serious assessment of the Tweet as an art form to the downright hilarious and/or the scathing.

These are some of my favorites...

Twitter is to writing as...

  • ...as Instant is to Coffee.  (Denny Hitzman)
  • ...as chaff is to wheat. (Dale Estey)
  • ...as "cultural" is to "phenomenon" (Ron Curren)
  • ...as the SAT is to testing. (Elspeth)
  • ...as American Idol is to singing. (Scott Perkins... one of the other ones)
  • ...as 100 calorie pack twinkies are to normal sized twinkies.(JoNell Franz)
  • ...as anonymous quickie with a hooker is to sex. (Dre Sargent)
  • ...as babbles are to press conferences. (Heather Glass)
  • ...as feces is to food. (Rydell)
  • ...as top ramen is to cooking. (Gwen A.)
  • ...as taking drugs is to your brain.  (Sheila Murphy-Nelson)
  • ...as a pygmy donkey is to a unicorn. (Rachael Heiner)
  • ...as a penny dreadful is to William Shakespeare. (Rex King... yes that's his real name, trust me.)
  • ...as Uwe Boll is to moviemaking. (Ray Axmann)
My favorite though, goes to Todd X of the blog Iced Tea & Sarcasm, who appreciates the nuance and brevity of writing within the 140 character limitations...
  • ...as "the net" is to "tennis." It's just another form and the parameters help dictate the form.
All in all, I think I agree with Todd.  There's a challenge to writing within guidelines, especially limitations of length.

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree with your assessment. I am, by far, the best. :)

    ReplyDelete

Pages to Type is a blog about books, writing and literary culture (with the occasional digression into coffee and the care and feeding of giant robots).