Time to move on

Professor William Strunk Jr.

Some time ago I got tired of living under the tyranny of Strunk & White's Elements of Style and sent my copy packing to the secondhand store. In case you are unfamiliar with it, this tiny book is a terse manual long considered by many educators and writers as the final word in rules of word usage and the principles of writing style. So this morning I was interested when I found a link at ArtsJournal to this article by Adam Haslett. For starters, Haslett notes that the work is "spoken in the voice of unquestioned authority in a world where that no longer exists".

"Though never explicitly political, The Elements of Style is unmistakably a product of its time. Its calls for “vigour” and “toughness” in language, its analogy of sentences to smoothly functioning machines, its distrust of vernacular and foreign language phrases all conform to that disciplined, buttoned-down and most self-assured stretch of the American century from the armistice through the height of the cold war. A time before race riots, feminism and the collapse of the gold standard. It is a book full of sound advice addressed to a class of all-male Ivy-Leaguers wearing neckties and with neatly parted hair." source

Don't get me wrong. I believe we have all benefited by the good professor's dictates. I will be wary of adjectives to my dying day, although mostly because of their egregious misuse by bad poets, but I have an unabashed fondness for the well done run-on sentence. Perhaps this is because I am given to a perpetual adolescent rebellion. Nevertheless, I have no interest in novelty for its own sake. I just do not agree with Strunk's overarching rule: “Prefer the standard to the offbeat” although, as Haslett notes, Hemingway managed to successfully blend the two.

Still, a word about Strunk's famous dictum: "

Omit needless words".  Of course, I too am always on the lookout for flabby writing but I also agree with Haslett's conclusion that:

"This rule leads young writers to be cautious and dull; minimalist style becomes minimalist thought, and that is a problem."

How far into uncharted territory can any rule book or map take me? I realize it's tacky to quote oneself but a line from one of my own poems comes to mind... "The glass breaks and I am gone." I don't know about you but, for me, that's the point.

The truth about the lunatic religious right in America

In my head

This was my to do list today.

This is what it felt like.

Egyptian Revolution Jan 25th 2011

This video was created by Tamer Shaaban. "Another Egyptian who's had enough."

Song: "Into the Fire" - Thirteen Senses

Thanks to the following news sources for their footage:
Daily News Egypt
The Guardian
CNN
New York Times
Al Masry Al Youm

I am especially moved by the comment of the man in the bright blue jacket at 0:06.

And this at 0:45. "We will not be silenced. Whether you're a Christian, whether you're a Muslim, whether you're an atheist, you will demand your goddamn rights, and we will have our rights, one way or the other. We will never be silenced!"

More at Reddit
Reposted from TYWKIWDBI

Cool dog moving lawn

This clip has made the rounds so you've probably already seen it. I just found it but, if it doesn't make you smile again, I'll refund your money.

Full moon night at the Invisible Theatre

Full moon night at the Invisible Theatre - photo by me

Talking Dogs

Frank... shut up.

Thanks, Mr. Lee.

Full moon in the Bird Park

"We point - You shoot"

Given the way things are going, it's time to consider if charges of Vicarious Liability and Felony Intimidation apply to public figures like Sarah Palin, Roger Ailes, Glenn Beck and FOX News.

"Someday Boooooom while you’re setting in your offices"
"And you know I won't even be the one pulling the trigger"
Cheryl Allen

Last week, after directing death threats to elected officials and staff from her Facebook page, Cheryl Allen was arrested on eight counts of Felony Intimidation. The charges carry a possible sentence of 4 to 24 years in prison and up to $80,000 in fines.

Two days ago, the Center for Constitutional Rights sent this letter to FOX "News" CEO, Roger Ailes. In it they ask him to stop his employee, Glenn Beck, from further harassing Professor Frances Fox Piven. As a direct result of his smear campaign against her, Beck's followers have sent Priven seriously disturbing death threats. Here are few unedited examples of their messages:

"Maybe they should burst through the fron door of this arrogant elitist and slit the hateful cow's throat." Reckless

"We should blow up Piven's office and home."

"I am all for violence and change Frances: Where do your loved ones live?"  Green Manilici

"Somebody tell Fances I have 5,000 rounds ready and I will give my life to take our freedom back. Taking her life and any who would enslave my children and grandchildren and call for violence should meet their demise as they wish. George Washington didn't use his freedom of speech to deveat the British. He shot them." superwrench 4

"Again, why is this woman still alive?" capnjack

"Big lots is having a rope sale I hear, you buy the rope and I will hang the wench. I will spin her as she hangs. Here is your velolution Piven wence, Alla Akbar!" ham4mohammed

"We need a target? OK...Here's one, Frances Fox Piven. Let's go string her up, as this mess is directly due to her and her husbands meddling." Voted against carter.

I doubt "Reckless", "superwrnch 4" or any of other the other loons threatening Piven would be doing so if Ailes and Beck had not loaded them like bullets into a chamber. This is not "robust discourse". FOX doesn't care if their listeners are crazy, drunk, stupid, high, political or just plain violent. This "We point -You shoot" policy endangers us all.

No butts? I think not.

 What the citizens of Kansas City do not realize when they stroll by the Busy Bee Cafe is that, while the place appears to be a grubby joint with dirty windows frequented by writers, photographers, travelers, artists and other mysterious hang-outers, it is much more. The Busy Bee Cafe houses a very strange wonderful device, the Alternate Reality Generator. The ARG as we say in the comics. So today, when the entire staff at the Bee so very earnestly insisted that the suspicious looking object in the popcorn hopper could not possibly be a cigarette butt, I did a little research and discovered what, indeed, they are trying to hide.

This photo was taken by Judie Ellis, an unsuspecting Brit, while on holiday in the Maldives with her husband Tony. What Judie and Tony did not realize is that the quaint little thatched-roof Maldives beach bar where they had just had lunch and a few too many beers, resulting in Tony dropping his ciggies in the sand to the delight of a couple of smoker crows, regulars who routinely entertain tourists in hope of the occasional peanut or bit of beer-soaked chapitis, is actually an alternate reality to the Busy Bee.

We all know crows, like ravens, are frequent travelers and emissaries between alternate realities. Obviously, Judie took her lucky shot just as the ARG rang back at the Bee. Blow back happens. It's simple, my dear Watson. The bell rang, it startled the crow causing him to drop his cigarette just as reality went into flux and that cigarette fell into the popcorn hopper back at the Bee.

But is this an isolated incident? I wonder, given the odd disclaimer on the hopper. "Busy Bee Popcorn . . . Mmm mmm good--no butts about it!"

Tesla

This is not an ad for Tesla. I just happened to see one yesterday and thought it was pretty cool. Look ma. No tailpipe! The one true all-electric car. I am not a car nut but I do appreciate when beauty and function come together in an eco-friendly manner. There are less than 1500 on the road worldwide so that makes this an Official Sighting and the first in a new category here at the language barrier. I know who he is but I scrubbed the license plate because otherwise I would feel creepy posting the photo. That said, he was one of the first software engineers at Google when it was a start-up. These days he does his own thing which includes helping develop eco-friendly projects, education and the arts. Oh and don't miss the fuzzy dice. Pure cool.

Base price for a Tesla $109,000(US), £86,950(UK) and €84,000 in continental Europe.