Word It: How

If you have come here directly from page 198 of the book, with the sole intention of submitting your own Word It for “How” you are in the right place. From here you may jump to the Word It instructions page or, if you prefer to watch, you can see all the entries for “How.”

And if you are here for the Making Of… all you have to do is scroll and enjoy.

The Making of the Book

Much of the fun of this book for us — besides the pleasure of making it — came from putting together the big opening photos and the tiny name underliners tucked in the spines for each word. We wanted the book to feel as home-made and self-sufficient as many of the Word Its we have received over the years so — other than a few stock photos we simply could have not created on our own — we went through the process of baking, propping, buying and modeling most of those innocuous openers. Following are a few highlights of what happened behind the final 10 x 10-inch crop that made it into the book.

Brownies / for Saturated





For this delicious shot, we baked brownies. The hardest part was not eating them, even though one or two were clearly making the frame look awful. Steady… Steady…

Fangs / for Nightmare





In search of the perfect angle (and holding mouth) for some cheap (and bad tasting) plastic fangs.

Jell-o / for Wiggle





Nowhere near as yummy as the brownies and ten times more messy.

The Finger / for Rebel





Idea number one: Give the finger. After many attempts we decided to forego the gesture and considered the badass ring, purchased in New York’s Lower East Side, to be rebellious enough.

French Fries / for Parody





These ranked somewhere between the brownies and the Jell-o in terms of taste. Unfortunately, by the time we were done with the photo, the fries were cold and soggy and all the goodness — aka the grease — had already seeped into the white seamless.

Rubber Chicken / for Prank





Perhaps the most odd item in our arsenal was the rubber chicken, which smelled exactly like you would expect a rubber chicken to smell like. A hot bath and some torturing only enhanced the smell.

Fun / for You



Three words collide in this classic portrait.


Best of all, our marriage survived!