“I’m always amazed to hear of air crash victims so badly mutilated that they have to be identified by their dental records. What I can’t understand is, if they don’t know who you are, how do they know who your dentist is?”—Paul Merton
By far the biggest problem in writing these days is too many words per thought. Sometimes the wordiness is intentional, but often it’s simply due to a lack of skill. Revising wordy prose is a little like translating. The following are passages from actual documents. Try revising them to reduce the wordiness, and compare … More Revising Wordy Prose
“MAN, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest the whole habitable earth and Canada.” ― Ambrose Bierce, … More Quote of the Day
For many of us, especially in the more privileged socio-economic sections of society, life is just one long self-improvement project that we know in our hearts will sooner or later end badly. As someone said, despite our best efforts to eat right and exercise regularly, mortality is holding steady at 100%. There is no end … More Staying Fit
“Fifty percent of people won’t vote, and fifty percent don’t read newspapers. I hope it’s the same fifty percent.”–Gore Vidal
Are Trump supporters stupid? It’s probably not politically correct to ask such a question, but Trump supporters hate political correctness. What they love about Trump, they say, is that he tells it like it is. Since he is obviously a pathological liar who makes things up as he goes along, they can’t possibly mean he’s … More Are Trump Supporters Stupid?
“Someone should tell scientists they don’t need to keep finding reasons for us to drink a glass of wine at night.”–Michelle Wolf
Years ago I was working out three days a week at the university gym, which was a short walk from my office. My workout partner and I did some running, but mostly we lifted weights. Once when I got back to my office after the workout, I suffered a sort of short-term memory loss. For example, … More Machismo
“Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.”— Richard P. Feynman
The Hillary Clinton forces have just unleashed the first attack ad against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XOocb-DId4 The presumptive part has never more important; it means that barring some catastrophe such as Trump having a fatal accident, he will be the nominee, but in his case, desperate Republicans may be planning the fatal accident. The … More American Politics: Candidates or Contestants?
No Harm Spilt 