In
Ray Romano's book
Everything And A Kite Ray explains that on long car trips when he's driving solo there's a little mental game he likes to play. He tries to come up with sentences that have never been said before in the entire history of man. He imagines that there's some great computer somewhere keeping track of everyone's sentences, and the challenge is to come up with a logical sentence that has never before been indexed by this computer.
For example, try this one: "Give me back my fudge suitcase." Maybe it's been said before, but probably not much. Who has a fudge suitcase? Now, the next part of the game is to come up with a scenario in which your sentence might have been said. For the fudge suitcase example, perhaps the person who said it is in an airport and is on his way home from Hershey, PA with a suitcase full of chocolate. The person passes through security and one of the guards snatches his bag for inspection. "Give me back my fudge suitcase!" the man shouts.
The next level of the game is to try and make your sentence even more unlikely to have been said. Now let's consider "Give me back my fudge suitcase, Rockhead." Perhaps the guard is named Rockhead? Or, failing that, Rockhead could be an insult towards the guard. See? We're having fun already.
Don't get too carried away though, or you'll violate the spirit of the game. Sure, chances are nobody's ever said "Give me back my fudge suitcase, Rockhead Jones and the Thirty Flamingos" but what's the point, y'know?
So, the rules are:
- Keep it real
- Keep it likely
- Keep it unique