Once Upon a Sentence.

"It was a humid afternoon in late September, the kind of weather that makes an apple feel slightly greasy  to the touch."

So begins writer John Seabrook's food piece called "Crunch" in the November 21 issue of The New Yorker.

It's a grabber, as we say in the industry.

Don't you want to read on?  

Splendid Beginnings.

Great opening lines are known among writers as "grabbers."

Beause a reader, once hooked, hungers for more words.

I was reminded of this as I read the opener of the book Furious Love:  Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century:   "I am forever punished by the gods for being given the fire and trying to put it out. The fire, of course, is you."

Tell me you wouldn't want to read more.

I did.