frotteur - someone who gets his or her kicks by pressing against others in crowds.What history has brought this about? Initial thought might be a sad history but need it be? (Being a pusher for the Tokyo subway system might be their ideal job :-)
Or are they perhaps not human? What could they be taking from the strangers they press up against?
Inspired by the compilation in Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words by Josefa Heiffetz Byrne. (Her definition is a bit, um, broader than the official definition! ;-) But let's leave it at that since it opens up a whole lot more possibilities ;-)
Use the following homophones in sentences that have a science fiction theme.
“Alexander Hamilton ran up those very treads!” said Steve Laise standing in the foyer of Hamilton's home. “It just puts you in such close proximity with the past. For those of us who really wish we were living back then anyway, it’s probably more of a stimulus to our imagination than we really ought to have.”
Petal Pushers, a clever name for a new flower shop. Or is it merely clever? The shop has become very popular very quickly and the other flower shop owners in town are curious about their competitors' success. Is it the prices? The flowers? The customer service? The owners? Or is there something else that's drawing in the customers?
You've won a week's vacation at an old resort that's been resurrected and refurbished. When you arrive you're greeted by your hosts (pictured). Several other people have also won the vacation. You don't know any of them but one person does look vaguely familiar. 
As you recall, it was a time of great famine in the time of Hansel and Gretel and the step mother persuaded the father to abandon the children in the woods so the wife and husband wouldn't starve.
A recent discussion on another list was about the "i before e except after c" rule and the words that break it. There are a whole series of "cien" words that break that rule. The challenge today is to use as many as you can in a writing piece. Feel free to use other forms.
Colombo Yogurt (owned by General Mills but I'm guessing the brand is local to New England) is running a contest to rename their flavors to reflect their New England heritage. Each state (Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York) will get their own flavor names.
Here's the set up:
One of the following was overheard at a coffee shop. Use it to inspire the real story behind the statement or what the effect was on the one who overheard.
and More Misheard Lyrics by Gavin Edwards. Click on the comments for the actual lyrics.
Cut up the following words, mix them up and choose 8 randomly. Play around with combinations. Pick a few more until you find something you like.
Write a series of eight-word lines. Each line will contain one of each part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, interjections and conjunctions.) How many lines you write is up to your muse or your 15 minutes timer :-)
To warm up your poetry muscles today, have fun with false comparisons. 
For this warm up, in each line write an fanciful combination. Keep going for 10-15 minutes.
Compare opposites for today's poetry warm up. 
Sometimes having the structure dictated can free up your creativity. Seems odd, yet it's like a coloring book. You don't have to spend time making the figure look right, just mess around with color.
Select one sentence each from a variety of different books or other sources. Add sentences of your own composition. Combine into a poem (or paragraph), reordering to produce the most interesting results.
For today's poetry warm up, make a statement about something ordinary. Then think of strange, impossible or maybe beautiful things that you might wish were there but aren't. For example:
