Killed while cutting down neighbor's tree

[Sam]

What would you suggest for the dead one?

[Tom Watson]

The writer? Or, the editor?

Tom Watson - WoodDorker tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (email)

(website)

[Lee Michaels]

"Sam" wrote

A pine box?

[Swingman]

What took you so long? (Look no further than the 'oldies' music in today's commercials to know that the imagination necessary for creativie writing has basically been sucked ouf of the culture via visual stimulation of one sort or another.)

From college to 1996 my reading-for-pleasure book budget was rarely less than $200/mo. For the past nine years I have read _nothing_ but 19th century English Literature ...from Austen, to the Bronte's, to Dickens, to Scott, Yonge, Trollope, Haggard, Gaskell, Elliot, Crane, Collins, Galsworthy, et al ... there is enough _excellent_ literature from that period to fuel a lifetime of pleasurable, intelligent, and *topical reading. (*nothing in human nature has changed, including the preponderance of ignorance).

.... and (OBWW) all that money can now be spent on tools and material.

[LRod]

[snipped the sorry state of modern writing]

When I worked for the government I constantly blanched at the output of the agency for which I worked. Generally, the manuals and directives were well done (made me wonder who was doing the copy checking), but internal memos and notices sometimes bordered on the absurd. And that does not take into account rampant verbification.

If you want to read some writing far above almost anyone from the 20th Century (and I can't think who would be better) try Patrick O'Brian (his Aubrey-Maturin canon). If you have read it, read it again.

In all fairness, the first ten were better than the last ten by a bit.

[Fly-by-Night CC]

using a chain saw to chop down a tree in her backyard... "

I think if I were trying to chop down a tree with a chain saw I'd certainly wish I was dead.

[Mark & Juanita]

That old joke with the punch line, "What's that noise, what's that noise?"

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Larry Jaques]

Yeah, the chainsawyer's line of work has already changed.

[DL]

Note that all of those involved were/are of the Polish persuasion.

;)

- -

DL

"Are the Oompa Loompas the synchronized swimmers?" - Ruby Tuesday on alt.culture.us.70s

::::::::::::::::

Halter Sucks!

[Prometheus]

I can sypathize with that one. Not all that big on Dickens myself, but if you're into Fitzgerald and Steinbeck, you might want to (and probably already have, but everone misses things from time to time) check out Hesse, Camus, Maupassant and Dovtoyeski. All masters of character study in broader social contexts. Oddly enough, Phillip K. Dick is not too bad, either- provided you can look past the borderline insanity of his plotlines. There's plenty to read, it just takes a lot of head banging to winnow out the wheat from the chaff.

Literature doesn't pay, and everyone is out to make a buck. You've got to remember that the publishing houses are playing to the lowest-common denominator just like everyone else. If they can sell a million copies of yet another Grisham novel about a lawyer who does something bad, why bother with printing twenty thousand copies of something that most twits won't understand, and is just going to end up on the bargin rack? Odds are there are a handful or two of fantastic wordsmiths' manuscripts moldering under the newest Harry Potter book.

Don't watch many movies, I take it? I'd hardly call most of that shlock "quality"... Though the special effects are pretty impressive these days.

It is, but we do what we can, right? Ever get that feeling that you're one of those fellas in Farenheit 451 that have to memorize books and keep quiet about it to prevent the firemen from burning you? It gets tiring seeing blank faces all the time.

[Sniffer]

I swear this is true. Years back when the Shuttle first launched it's then new Canadian Arm an Info Babe from CNN or one of the big three was there to cover the flight by doing an interview of an engineer. It was immediately obvious that she had not a clue and her fellow reporters had told her a good question to ask was, "There is some fear the Shuttle won't be able to achieve orbit because the arm is to heavy, is that true?"

The guy stiffled a laugh, barely.

[fredfighter]

Is 'verbification' an example of 'nounification'?

Isn't there a Latin word for both? If so, does thi snot absurdly imply that Latin terms are proper English?

[fredfighter]

Back when NASA still provided a feed of the communications between ground control and the shuttle crew to the networks I was watching a launch with some taling head, might have been Dan Rather, and a Nasa guy providing commentary. Mercifully, they said very little so we could hear as the chuttle crew noted a high temperature on their #3 APU and after verifying tha tground control saw the same thing, received the OK to shut it down. At the time, this had been a chronic and well publicised problem. IMMEDIATLEY after ground control told the crew to go ahead and shut down the overheated unit the talking head guy remarked to the NASA guy, "Well, it sounds like everything is going OK."

[John B]

LOL Love it

[Larry Jaques]

Gerunding.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Heart Attacks: God's revenge for eating his little animal friends --

Comprehensive Website Development --

[Tom Watson]

No, I think that Gerunds are those little animals that run in packs and jump off cliffs.

[Robert Bonomi]

Lemons, you mean, don't you?

Like what St. Nick uses to pull his sleigh -- those eight little rind-deer.

[Robert Bonomi]

There is the part-of-speech called the 'gerund'. Created, in English, by taking a verb, adding the 'ing' suffix, and using it as a noun.

AFAIK, going the other way is known as "to verbify", an appropriatly ugly term..

The real problem comes when those 're-colonize the inner city' types try to 'modify' that created abomination back into a noun form. This is frequently referred to, disparagingly, as "verb-on gerundification."

*groan*

[Dave in Fairfax]

Nah, the BIG ones are Gerunds, the little ones are Gerundives. It's the students that jump off the cliffs.

Dave in Fairfax

[Tom Watson]

I'm gonna boldly go to see the Gerundologist.

I think I've split my infinitive.

Or else a farking Gerund done bit it.