Media

Maureen Dowd: she hates politics, she hates politicians (except the odd "tough guy"; she has a thing for fake "tough guys") and yet stays in a job in which she has to write about...politics. What to do? She could become bitter. Or she could use that legendary wit for pointless antiphonal wordplay. Or she could do both, which is what she usually does.

Classic Dowd Pointless Antiphonal Wordplay (CLADPAW) involves combining a political reference with a pop cultural reference in the first clause of the sentence, and then recombining the two in a pointless way in the second clause, often with the addition of some kind of homophone, homonym, or pun. Turns out, it's as satisfying as it sounds.

You can try it yourself with our 23/6 Dowd-O-Tron. Or check out her most recent column, which offers us three textbook CLADPAW's. Hard to say which one is the best. Tell us what you think.