Page 54 - Lulu and Bob in Verbo City

The feminine twin bent over her scribbles. “I think we can insert a
colon in the middle of that tube-steak. It parses much better. Listen
to this: ‘Let us be frank: further vain scrutiny’.”
“Makes sense.” The gazelle was gone, but Bob stayed with the task
at hand. “I see a carton of eggs on line ten, then an ocean wave, then
the letter ‘A’ and an aquatic animal. So, it’s what?—‘egg sea a
dolphin’. ‘Eck! See Adolf in’.”
“Don’t get so hung up on first impressions, Bob. Go for synonyms
that work as homonyms. It’s not just eggs, but twelve of them: a
dozen. And the wave could be ‘tide’ or ‘breakers’ or ‘surf’. And the
creature could be a porpoise as easily as a dolphin.”
“That’s a lot of substitution and combination,” said the masculine
twin. “But not every one of them can produce a sensible statement.
Ah, I think we have some more of Uncle’s near-misses: ‘dozen’ is
close to ‘doesn’t’, ‘surf’ is almost ‘serve’, and ‘porpoise’ to the hard-
of-hearing might be ‘purpose’.”
“I do believe you are catching on.” Lulu had already finished
writing the line. “It ends with ‘N’ plus ‘R’ plus ‘G’—that is,
‘energy’—and the bottom of a shower stall: a drain.”

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