Remedial Education

 

“It is time that the American people — the farmers, the mechanics, cooks, servers, office workers, writers, journalists, white-collar, blue-collar and no-collar workers, executives and, most importantly, our elected officials — reread the Constitution; discuss it at home, at the workplace, at taverns, on TV specials, and bus stops.”

—Michael Haskins, writer and blogger, “Do You Know Your First Amendment Rights?” 2008.

• Editorial Comment: “Reread”?

 

 

 

PeezPIX

 

Hosehound.

The May issue of Senior News is out. After a Long Year, Silver Linings. Read all about it.

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

Public Happiness

 

“There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.” 

 

―George Washington (1732-1799), military general, gentleman farmer, statesman and 1st President of the United States (1789-1797).

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: The Founding Fathers knew.

 

 

 

PeezPIX

 

 

Rhodie Season

The May issue of Senior News is out. After a Long Year, Silver Linings. Read all about it.

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

Debilitating Disease

“For decades a debilitating disease has been spreading across America. Risk factors include being over 65, Republican and white. Symptoms include unhinged muttering, delusional thinking and an irresistible urge to storm the Capitol. The disease is called “Foxitis” and a lawyer called Joseph Hurley, who is representing alleged U.S . Capitol rioter Anthony Antonio, wants us to believe his client is suffering from it. . . .

“‘He became hooked with what I call ‘Foxitis’ or ‘Foxmania’ and … started believing what was being fed to him.’ . . . Now Antonio is facing five charges over his role in the January riot.”

—Arwa Mahdawi, columnist, “Beware the deadly new disease spreading across America: ‘Foxitis,’” The Guardian, May 8, 2021.

 

 

• Editorial Comment: Rupert Murdoch made me do it!

 

 

PeezPIX

 

Eat yer veggies!

The May issue of Senior News is out. After a Long Year, Silver Linings. Read all about it.

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

Letter to the Editor

Today’s WORD on Journalism

Year 26 — Afflicting the comfortable since 1995

Tuesday, May 11, 2021 • See TedsWORD online.

“Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split, and when I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more or less literate syntax with a few sudden words of barroom vernacular, this is done with the eyes wide open and the mind relaxed but attentive. The method may not be perfect, but it is all I have. I think your proofreader is kindly attempting to steady me on my feet, but much as I appreciate the solicitude, I am really able to steer a fairly clear course, provided I get both sidewalks and the street between.”

—Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), Letter to the editor of The Atlantic Monthly, Jan. 18, 1947. | Letters of Note (Vol. 1)

 

 

• Editorial Comment: The editor is appropriately chastened. 

 

 

 PeezPIX

Sailors Wanted

 

The May issue of Senior News is out. After a Long Year, Silver Linings. Read all about it.

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

 

 

Just the Basics

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." 

—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), Roman statesman.

• Editorial Comment: And a comfy lawnchair.

 

 

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CA Poppies

The May issue of Senior News is out. After a Long Year, Silver Linings. Read all about it.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD 

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

 

 

Vaster and Vaster

“It may be the most famous broadside launched by a government official in American history:

“Sixty years ago this Sunday, Newton N. Minow invited the television executives gathered in Washington for his first official speech as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to spend a day watching their own broadcasts.

“‘Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off,’ he said. ‘I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.’ . . . 

“In the six decades since Minow’s speech to the National Assn. of Broadcasters, the landscape has become vaster, its average quality ever diminished.”

—Michael Hiltzik, columnist, “Six decades ago, Newton Minow called TV a ‘vast wasteland.’ It’s even vaster today,” Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2021. Note: Newton Minow, now 95, is still alive and kickin’.

 

 

• Editorial Comment: Is ‘vaster’ even a word?

 

 

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Calla season.

The May issue of Senior News is out. After a Long Year, Silver Linings. Read all about it.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD 

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

 

 

Especially Hooptedoodle

“These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story.”

—Elmore Leonard (1925-2013), pulp fiction genius, “WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle,” The New York Times, 2001.

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: That sentence alone could drive an entire course on writing. (Although I question the NYT headline writer on that semi-colon.)

• BONUS VIDEO: Elmore Leonard talks about writing. The video is poor, but the audio is worth it. 

 

 

 

 

PeezPIX

Foggy wild iris.

The May issue of Senior News is out. After a Long Year, Silver Linings. Read all about it.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD 

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard

 

 

Fishwrap

“No self-respecting fish would be wrapped in a Murdoch newspaper.” 

 

—Mike Royko (1932-1997), columnist, upon quitting the Chicago Sun-Times when Rupert Murdoch bought the paper, switching to the Tribune, 1984.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Editorial Comment: I know some eels who would . . . .

 

 

 

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Fishface.

The May issue of Senior News is out. After a Long Year, Silver Linings. Read all about it.

FREE! Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email This free “service” is sent to 2,000,000 or so subscribers around the planet more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 

Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD 

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard