Criminal Sentence 47: Faulty Comparison

From a newspaper column where the columnist answers readers' bizarre questions. In this column, the columnist didn't remember how to make bird feeders out of old pill bottles:

"I have made tuned wind chimes in the past, but like making bird feeders out of old pill bottles, the directions are long lost."

This sentence incorrectly compares "making bird feeders" to "the directions." Writer and reader can understand this sentence, but it's better to compare like things.

You can rewrite this in a number of ways. Here are two examples:

"I have made tuned wind chimes in the past, but like the directions for making bird feeders out of old pill bottles, those for making tuned wind chimes are lost."

"I have made tuned wind chimes in the past, but the directions for making them are lost, as are the instructions for making bird feeders out of old pill bottles."