Category: Literacy

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Circular File

Christopher Stasheff wrote (d. 2018) a more-or-less lighthearted scifi-fantasy mashup series that reflected the ethics/morality of his religious convictions without beating folks over the head with his principles; he just had characters that lived their fictional lives to a high standard of morality and ethics. What made that work, though, was that he told cracking good stories.

Fast forward to today’s introduction to a plot that attempts to use the same strange premise as Stasheff’s most popular work. . . and does so. . . poorly. *sigh* Four chapters in and I am about to ditch the book. I do not like the main character because the character is just about (well, almost) empty—there is no “there” there to the character, just *poof*, and I am still waiting for the story to get beyond the setup. Four chapters in. Just no.

Yeh, goodbye.

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The One-Sided War Has FINALLY Seen a Reply to the Enemy

I see some saying the craziness resulting from TDS and completely whacko reactions to DOGE cutting waste, fraud, corruption, and blatant treason (supplying BILLIONS in aid and comfort to avowed enemies of the US) is evidence that the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade does not think of long term consequences. Au contraire, mon frère. Some leftists do think of long term consequences. It’s why they have had so much success with the “Department of Misunderedumacationism” in dumbing down America. #gagamaggot Surely you don’t think the 45 years of policies and pressures from the DoE that have caused such harm in the supposed cause of “helping” schools have all been from a LACK of thought about the results! Nope. The harm done has been intentional.

“Once is happenstance; twice is coincidence; three times is enemy action” and 45 years of harmful acts is a war.

DoE: DOA. RIH.

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“Against Stupidity. . . “

“. . .the gods themselves contend in vain.” – Schiller,

    Maid of Orleans.

    A frequent subliterate “Dunning-Krugerand” ploy when confronted with an argument they cannot counter is to accuse their interlocutor of throwing up incoherent word salad found by (virtually?) thumbing through a thesaurus and picking “big words” to confuse the issue. Of course, all that means is that the subliterate “Dunning-Krugerand” can’t comprehend clear, plain English that is composed of words outside his pathetically small vocabulary. It also means that the subliterate “Dunning-Krugerand” (probably) cannot conceive of an expanded vocabulary that does not issue from abusing a thesaurus.

    Those of use who grew up reading dictionaries for fun just laugh. Then we may, if sufficiently provoked, raucously mock them. Without end, until they slink away dragging their lobotomized Bonobo Chimpanzee ghost writer with them.

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Writing Tip #4,957

Eschew obscurantism, redundancy, and prolixity. That is, avoid arcane, esoteric, recondite, or obscure expressions; avoid undue repetition, reiteration, and duplication-reduplication of statements, and, above all, refrain from extreme, inordinate, unbridled, unchecked, and exorbitant wordiness.

YW.

Addendum: dictionaries are your friend. Thesauruses? not so much.

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Book Him, Danno

Went to a Trivial Pursuit party, oh, about 40 years ago, held at the home of a guy who owned a moving company. OK, that’s trivializing his company. What he moved was HOUSES (was fun being a minor part of the move when he moved some Army barracks that had been declared surplus).

What impressed me most about the evening was not how trivial the Trivial Pursuit play was but the guy’s library. It was a mezzanine floor that encompassed three sides of the great room where we played our mini single-elimination tournament. I do not recall anything else about the house, but that library has featured in more than a few of my dreams over the years since. . .