Over on the book of faces, I'd asked a simple question when I was stuck on the story yesterday. I wanted to play up Kevin's 'aw, shucks' style of speaking with a playful analogy. I received so many great responses that I decided to preserve them for posterity!
I asked:
She took to it like...
ducks to water
pigs to mud
What else makes a similar analogy and isn't old and tired?
Responses poured in, so fast the the ever-borked farce stopped sending me notifications. At one point I was startled to realize I had 78 comments, some with more than one suggestion in them. It was a great exercise, and someday I'm going to use more, but you are welcome to snag them too!
She took to it like...
Cats to nip
chickens eating snakes
spring breakers to beer
a duck on a june bug
a puppy to new shoes
diabetes to chocolate lovers
dogs to legs
camels to cigarettes
a grandma to rocking chairs
a teenager to a video game controller
salt to a melon
stink to a skunk
a hog to slop
a cow to cud
a dog to a bone
a Russian to a brass Pole
a mouse to cheese
a wizard to magic
a cowboy to his horse
a 4-year-old to Youtube
a crazy cat lady to a stray cat
a politician to pork
a toddler to drums
Anakin Skywalker to the Dark side of the force
an English teacher to pedantic explanations
E. coli on organic artisanal spinach
a possum on a june bug
a preacher to fried chicken
a narcissist to a mirror
flies to a dead horse
an SR-71 takes to afterburner (Rex! Slow Down!)
a tornado to a trailer park
a penguin to an ice floe
a second skin
flies on shit
nerds to the 'Net
geeks to games
hair on a black shirt
a writer to coffee
a hippie to pot
a dog rolling on 5-day-old roadkill
a corgi to trouble
a weasel to chicken dinner
bees to pollen
cats to salmon
toddlers to dirt
a dragon to gold
a magnet to metal
bats to bugs
peaches to cream
a dog to a bone
a politician to corruption
a tapeworm to intestines
a sot to suds
grease to a griddle
a debutante to a pair of Jimmy Choos
drunks to the sketchy sausage cart at 2 am
The really fun thing is that you'll note that many of these, in very few words, set a tone and even a scene in the mind. Funny, sarcastic, bitter, biting, even sweet. It's a great way to take a single line and use it as a succinct tool in writing, but also to play on a well-worn trope in a fresh way.