Can similes and adverbs survive?

I know, I know... I've been a blog slacker. But that wasn't my intention. It was all (or partly) due to living off the grid for five weeks. Now I'm back in the land of easy electricity, and here I am, on your screen again.

A while back, when Nathan Bransford was still agenting and blogging regularly about writing matters, he proclaimed that one simile per book was all he 'allowed'. Confession: my pre-order-on-Amazon-and Barnes and Noble etc. new book 'Cape Town' contains many similes.

Now, when my husband and I arrived at Auckland airport we picked up a magazine entitled, appropriately, Arrival. Yes, there were special offers, discounts, and ads, but we also found the pages a useful source of inspiration. What struck me immediately was an ad for a mobile phone network (I believe) that proclaimed 'Sweet As'. And that was it. This truncated figure of speech was confirmed by my daughter as being current in New Zealand. So you don't even need to think of a simile or a cliche but can say 'Hot As', 'Cold As' or whatever you like.

Hmmm.

Driving those bendy but picturesque roads, we passed many signs admonishing us to 'Drive Safe'. Well, that takes care of those writing 'rules' that proclaim you should only use words ending in 'ly very, very sparingly.

Then we passed a new sign that said 'Drive Safely'. Truth to tell, I felt like raising a cheer.