My high school English teacher, way back when, started us on a great game once - you have Tom say something, and tack on an adverb that relates more to Tom's sentence than to the way he said it. Eg:
"I can't find the apples I bought in the market," said Tom fruitlessly.
"I can beat anyone at Scrabble," said Tom winningly.
"I've eaten enough of these bitter herbs," said Tom ruefully.
"This knife is like a razor," said Tom sharply.
Anyone else wanna have a go?!
A few the teacher gave us were quite rude...."I see nothing wrong with homosexuality," said Tom in ernest [sic]; and "I'm a fan of necrophilia," said Tom in dead ernest. The first one can also be changed to, "I haven't made up my mind about homosexuality," said Tom, half in ernest[sic].
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
