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William Zinsser’s Mad Wisdom
“Few people realize how bad they write. Nobody has shown them how much excess or murkiness has crept into their style and how it obstructs what they are trying to say. If you give me an eight-page article and I tell you to cut it to four pages, you’ll howl and say it can’t be done. Then you’ll go home and do it, and it will be much better. After that comes the hard part: cutting it to three.” — William Zinsser, “On Writing Well” I don’t know this gentleman personally, but I sure wish I did. As a die-hard lover and endorser of all things E.B. White, especially…
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Spiders, Snakes, and Charlotte: Oh, My! The Death of a Spider
Then Last week, there was a spider in our garage. My daughter screamed when she saw it. “Daddy! Mommy! Can you sweep that dead spider out of the garage! It’s huge!” she exclaimed. My husband was inside, so I took a peek at the thing, though I, like many of you, am not a fan of arachnids. As I was reminded last year when my son was studying for a science test, arachnids are not insects. Arachnids have eight legs and two body parts; insects have six legs, three body parts, and typically have wings as well. Nevertheless, the point I am attempting to make is that this arachnid was…