Peanuts by Charles Schulz for July 10, 2016

Ain’t that the truth, Snoopster.

Per Wiki: “It was a dark and stormy night” is an often-mocked and parodied phrase written by English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton in the opening sentence of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford.

Snoopy that isnt hard work, It’s CLICHE work! XD

So much work for one simple sentence. Imagine the nightmare for professional writers.

I never read a book beginning “It was a bright and sunny night”, though I always wondered about that oft-repeated line of moonlight being “almost as bright as day.” Not in my experience.

Speaking as a person who writes stories himself for his own amusement, I so entires walk around contemplating just like Snoopy (minus the typewriter.) ;)

Oops, “so entires” was supposed to be “sometimes”

Remember, a day without sunshine is like… night.

How did it become a trite and hackneyed expression if it was only used 2 times?

I

can

agree

with

that, Snoopy.

And thus was launched the phrase that began a thousand stories by The World Famous Writer….

The kiss of death opening sentence….

There is a periodic Bulwer-Lytton contest, where people try to come up with a bad opening line. Google it for some results.

My favorite of the Snoopy stories was when he wrote something like the following (paraphrasing here): “It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out. A door slammed and the maid screamed. A pirate ship appeared on the horizon. While the people starved the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile a lonely girl sold violets. The patient in the hospital did not seem to be getting better.” Then Snoopy informs the reader: “I tie this all up in part two.” He proceeds to do so: “The doctor frowned. Could his patient be the sister of the girl selling violets, the daughters of the maid, who had escaped from the pirate ship?” Linus is reading this, and he asks, “But what about the king?” Snoopy promptly bonks Linus on the head with his typewriter!

Dark and stormy night? Sounds good. Wish it was dark and stormy here in my part of the UK.

xxx

I can relate, Snoopy. I’ve been doing some writing myself recently, and though it’s tough, seeing a solid finished product is always great.

Hang in there and good luck, buddy.

Been there, done that; got a whole closet of T-shirts.

We had all the Readers Digest Condensed Books from the early ’50s to the late ’70s previously belonging to my Mom, and sold them years ago in a garage sale for a few dollars.

I believe they are considered a collectible today, so maybe I should have kept them…

Reminds me of George Carlin’s old hippie weatherman bit: “Tonight’s forecast: 100% chance of darkness!”

BTO. Re “Paul Clifford.” Clifford is a big red talking cartoon dog; Snoopy is a talking cartoon dog. AHA! That’s the connection. ‘Cause no one’s heard of Paul Clifford before.