Well, this looks important. It even says so. “Important Notification for New Jersey State Residents,” right there on the cover. I’d better hurry and open it! So, I hurriedly tear off the perforated sides … because that’s always fun … and this is what I see. An offer for books.…
Reading is Hard
I spent some time with one of my friends and her 6-year old twins recently. They came to visit with a big pile of first-level reading books, and we adults had a chance to help them over the hard parts. I don’t know about you, but I remember learning to…
Happy
Thank you, Lillie, for awarding me the Happy 101 Award. As she puts it: “To accept the award, I am to list ten things that make me happy, then pass the award to five other bloggers. Our society so often focuses on the negative rather than positive, on what’s wrong…
Auto-Renewal Notification Review
I recently received a copy of Food Network magazine–to which I tried a trial subscription a year ago–with this letter pasted to the cover. “Important Subscriber Notice” is emblazoned across the top, with a warning that, “This is a reminder that your current subscription term is ending, but as a…
MM: Tighter Prose is Brighter Prose
You’ve heard writers telling you to eliminate extra words, to tighten up your prose, right? It’s so easy to write with careless zeal, lassoing every word we come across, willy-nilly, just to rope it into our work. If 50 words are good, 60 must be better. There’s no such thing…