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I was so impressed with Duquesne University Communication Department Chair Ronald C. Arnett's ability to repeatedly work in the phrase "world come of age" in chapter 2 of his book Dialogic Confession: Bonhoeffer's Rhetoric of Responsibility, that I started to count up the number of times. I came up with a total of 19 times in a 23 page chapter.
As I was to discover, though, this was just an appetizer. The main course was chapter 3, where Arnett pulled off an astonishing 39 "world come of age" mentions in a mere 20 pages. Did some sort of late night bar bet lead to this? I hope he won, if that's the case.
The whole incident got me thinking, though: are there other academics out there who engage in similar tomfoolery and shenanigans? The way I see it, Arnett has thrown down the gauntlet. Therefore, PoF is hosting the Ronald Arnett Challenge. There are three ways to win:
1) submit an author's work with a higher number of repeated phrases in a single chapter
2) submit an author's work that contains a higher per page count of repeated phrases in a single chapter
3) the ultimate victory: combine 1 & 2 above
Who is brave enough to accept the challenge?
