_______________________________________________________________________________ / Like an expensive sports car, fine-tuned and well-built, Portia was sleek, \ | shapely, and gorgeous, her red jumpsuit moulding her body, which was as warm | | as seatcovers in July, her hair as dark as new tires, her eyes flashing like | | bright hubcaps, and her lips as dewy as the beads of fresh rain on the hood; | | she was a woman driven -- fueled by a single accelerant -- and she needed a | | man, a man who wouldn't shift from his views, a man to steer her along the | | right road: a man like Alf Romeo. | | -- Rachel Sheeley, winner | | | | The hair ball blocking the drain of the shower reminded Laura she would never | | see her little dog Pritzi again. | | -- Claudia Fields, runner-up | | | | It could have been an organically based disturbance of the brain -- perhaps a | | tumor or a metabolic deficiency -- but after a thorough neurological exam it | | was determined that Byron was simply a jerk. | | -- Jeff Jahnke, runner-up | | | | Winners in the 7th Annual Bulwer-Lytton Bad Writing Contest. The contest is | | named after the author of the immortal lines: "It was a dark and stormy | | night." The object of the contest is to write the opening sentence of the | \ worst possible novel. / ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \ \ /\_)o< | \ | O . O| \_____/