"The Elements of Style"

More from the "Sacred Diary."

In this excerpt, Adrian is talking about his son, a teenager in a band called, "Bad News For The Devil." Here 'tis:

"Went to Unity Hall tonight to hear 'Bad News For The Devil' practising. When I got there, stood outside for a moment listening to a noise that sounded like a piano falling down a lift-shaft with someone trapped under the lid.

Turned out to be a number called 'Peace Will Come'.

Privately thought a better name for the group would be 'Rather Encouraging News For The Devil'."

I have an on again/off again enamoration (is this a word?) with a little book called "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. It's a grammar handbook we were required to have at AACS, but I like to read it for pleasure sometimes when I'm bored. Before you judge me, let me explain that it is sardonically clever and really good entertainment if you like that sort of thing.

Since I am in the middle of a book excerpt phase, here is one from "The Elements of Style":

"Inexperienced writers not only overwork their adverbs, but load their attributives with explanatory verbs: 'he consoled,' 'she congratulated.' They do this, apparently, in the belief that the word said is always in need of support, or because they have been told to do it by experts in the art of bad writing" (p. 75).

Ha!

Found this picture on my camera yesterday:

They're looking at Dorothy.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

(You should be getting higher in pitch as you finish awing...)