Recent content by Also

Including Christmas, in these parts.

To elaborate, I'd say it deserves an annoyed smirk for its irony.

How strictly do you mean "past" — as in "past the birthday?"

Truly depressing

Unflappable, yes. It's what I would use, and I'm a stickler for precise sense. Blasé is not about surprises. It's about all of life, a sort of uncharmable ennui. If someone is blasé about something in particular, it means they should react with enjoyment but do not.

Also from Vonnegut's Mother Night, indirectly. "We must be careful what we pretend to be, for in the end, we ARE what we pretend to be." That's from the introduction. Then in the film, there was a line not in the book. Howard Campbell's friend turns out to be a Russian agent, and says...

So which is it when Han tells Leia, "You've changed your hair." Or is that intentional humor of the self-parody variety?

AND

I greatly enjoyed that book and found it validating on so many points. Later the same year of my original post, I came across a $5 PDF booklet by Beth Hill on theeditorsblog.net titled and focused exactly on Punctuation in Dialogue. And yet a couple of months later, I came across this useful...

A golf/hunting-style laser rangefinder to take to a nearby state park to see if I was approximately accurate in writing: The stretch in question does indeed vary from 94 to 117 yards. So much easier than wading and swimming with the end of a steel measuring tape between my teeth. I...

This post is a rescue from the old board. I was going to put this on a blog page mostly as a convenient quick-ref for myself. Then I realized it might be helpful to discuss first, in part as a useful community discussion and in part to catch omissions or points someone believes to be...

Often it's helpful to broaden the question or perspective in a quest like this. Someone who is unflappable is insensitive to surprises without even needing to include the word "surprise." I've often found the word or answer I was looking for was close at hand all along, but obscured by a bias...

"New" is good for branding and will remain so even after it's no longer new. New wave cinema is no longer avant garde, but it's still new wave cinema. New Scotland yard is no longer new, but it's still the place. "New" will maintain its sense of "re-formed."

I should have given my spot #5 to Jim Harrison instead of dishonorable mention to Ayn Rand. Harrison was a master of free narrative — artful telling, as it were — not dependent on scene-writing. Revenge, Legends of the Fall, The River Swimmer.... His last name was right there in the planning...

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