Baseball’s peripatetic scribe, the New Yorker’s Roger Angell in the November 30, 2009 description of the Damned Yankee’s 2009 World Series Championship describes pitcher C.C. Sabathia thusly:
“Too bad, but I’m not going to get around to C.C. Sabathia’s sunny looks and pavilion-sized pants and weird, white-toed spikes, or ask batters how they feel about his fastball-cutter-changeup assortment that arrives (he’s six-seven and two hundred and ninety pounds) like a loaded tea tray coming down an airshaft.”
That boys and girls, is a simile.
Excellent comment on CC Sabathia — I always thought that crooked hat might be off-putting too. Like you, I covered my boat yesterday, unlike you I used a newly-purchased plastic tarp. Unfolding it in 15 degree temps was interesting, and I quit when my fingers could no longer follow my brain’s instrucions on how to tie a knot.
not to quibble with Angell’s divine quill, but I might have substituted “dumbwaiter” for “airshaft” — but either way the similie is a homerun. (sorry, couldn’t resist…)
Jan — I thought the same thing until I had a flash of Curly dropping a fully loaded tea tray down the wrong opening onto Moe’s head. If you think about it, a dumbwaiter would be a nice easy, controlled delivery. An airshaft is pure crashing chaos.