Very Bad Things

August is usually a deathly slow news month, but thus far it’s already being filled with senatorial infidelity, a steady stream of Olympians, and an all-out war. All of which means that we’ve missed out on the important filler stories that usually fill up this wonderful month.
For instance, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, named for the author of the infamous first sentence, “it was a dark and stormy night.”
Each year, the judges choose the worst opening sentence to a novel and present it to the world, relieving the crushing burden of finding something to report in the middle of August. Of course, this year, as the judges note, “it appears that many newspapers have allowed themselves to be distracted by a large athletic contest being staged somewhere in Asia.”
Indeed.