As a newspaper copy editor and MFA in Creative Writing, I get angry when people carve up the English language. I feel that it promotes and justifies illiteracy. Who needs to know how to spell, write, or use grammar, when you can just stick down a smiley face to communicate an emotion? Sometimes when I read e-mail chat, I feel like I'm reading George Orwell's "newspeak." I also feel like I'm an outdated old fossil, who should be shoved off to the scrapheap.
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"My intensity is intense." -- Roger Clemens
"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." -- Winston Churchill.
"I am not a hero. The heroes are all dead. I am a survivor." -- Sgt. William Guarnere, Easy Company, 506th Parachute Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
Check out my little contributions to World War II history at my web pages: World War II Plus 55
or http://davidhlippman.wildbillguarnere.com |