Every year, English teachers from across the country submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country.

Here are last year’s winners.

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 pm. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.<

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

1. When there’s only one other person in the elevator, tap them on the shoulder and then pretend it wasn’t you.
2. Push the buttons and pretend they give you a shock. Smile, and go back for more.
3. Ask if you can push the button for other people, but push the wrong ones.
4. Call the Psychic Hotline from your cell phone and ask if they know what floor your on.
5. Hold the doors open and say your waiting for a friend. After a while, let the doors close, and say, “Hi Greg. How’s your day been?”
6. Drop a pen and wait until someone goes to pick it up, then scream, “That’s mine!”
7. Bring a camera and take pictures of everyone in the elevator.
8. Move your desk into the elevator and whenever anyone gets on, ask if they have an appointment.
9. Lay down the twister mat and ask people if they would like to play.
10. Leave a box in the corner, and when someone gets on, ask them if they can hear ticking.
11. Pretend you are a flight attendant and review emergency procedures and exits with the passengers.
12. Ask, “Did you feel that?”
13. Stand really close to someone, sniffing them occasionally.
14. When the doors close, announce to the others, “It’s okay, don’t panic, they open again!”
15. Swat at flies that don’t exist.
16. Tell people that you can see their aura.
17. Call out, “Group Hug!”and then enforce it.
18. Grimace painfully while smacking your forehead and muttering, “Shut up, all of you, just shut up!”
19. Crack open your briefcase or purse, and while peering inside, ask, “Got enough air in there?”
20. Stand silently and motionless in the corner, facing the wall, without getting off.
21. Stare at another passenger for a while, then announce in horror, “Your one of THEM!” and back away slowly.
22. Wear a puppet on your hand and use it to talk to the other passengers.
23. Listen to the elevator walls with your stethoscope.
24. Make explosion noises when anyone presses a button.
25. Stare, grinning at another passenger for a while, then announce, “I have new socks on”.
26. Draw a little square on the floor with chalk and announce to the other passnegers, “This is MY personal space!”

Disclaimer: Not recommended to do. But if you insist, do so in your own risk. HAHAHA

1. During the trailers, shout, Fast forward! Fast forward!

2. Wear a very tall hat.

3. When people come in late, say Orrrrrhhhh very loudly.

4. During opening credits… point at a character and say loudly, “He dies at the end.”

5. After every gunshot, scream “take cover!” and hit the floor.

6. Use a laser pointer and point the beam at the screen, especially at the eyes

7. Go tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk loudly at every kissing scene.

8. Throw popcorn in the air and yell, “It’s snowing! Its snowing!”

9. Clap and cheer whenever one of the good guys gets killed.

10. Urge everyone in the cinema to start a Mexican wave.

11. During horror movies, keep singing the theme to Jaws (dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum)

12. Sit on old people, pretending not to know they are there

13. Go to an afternoon screening. Go out of your way to sit next to the only other person in the cinema. Smile at him/her suggestively. (Recommended: waggle your eyebrows for
added effect.)

14. Repeat all dialogue ten seconds after it’s said on screen.

15. Bring in durians for your movie snack.

16. Or bring in a bowl of noodle soup, and slurp it up loudly.

17. During a sensitive scene, stand up and say loudly, I go shee-shee now, can?

18. Eat the snacks of the person sitting next to you.