Tom Wolfe's Washington Post

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Onomatopoeia, the formation of words by imitating natural sounds, was another favorite:

When Federal Aviation Administration officials unveiled a new machine that immediately malfunctioned, Wolfe recorded its "ta-pocket-ta-pocket-ta-pocket-ta" noise.

The subject of another piece was heard to growl: "kr-r-r-r-r-r-!"

Forty-two years before he dropped "otorhinolaryngological" into a sex scene in the novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons," Wolfe used bewildering medical terminology to similarly comedic effect in a story about Chubby Checkers's hit song "The Twist":

"The knee action in this dance fad embodies a simultaneous flexion, extension, adducation, circumduction and rotation of the human joints hitherto unknown to anatomical science."

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Wolfe also exploited the comic potential of serial commas in a front-page article on a parade that began:

"Twenty-six thousand cart-wheeling, can-canning, cloud-kicking, cadence-counting, kilt-flipping, skirt-flouncing, show-boating, baton-twirling, tall-strutting, crowd-tickling -- Take a breather here. We've got 10 blocks to go, from 7th Street and Constitution Avenue NW to 17th.

-- band-playing, fife-piping, drum-flogging, jazz-blowing, horn-blasting, ear-bombing, eye-popping, boot-shuffling, heel-clicking, banner-bearing -- Getting your second wind? This continues for 5 hours and 14 minutes.

-- float-pulling, stunt-pulling, leg-pulling, shillelagh-flailing, slogan-flaunting, flashy-drilling, fancy-dancing, rifle-juggling, flag-flourishing and, we might add -- safety-patrolling -- boys, girls, policemen and poets marched here yesterday in the 25th National School Safety Patrol Parade."