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Archive for September, 2011

91. In the waiting room

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on 22 September 2011| 6 Comments »

Waiting room in the Eye, Ear, Nose, & Throat Hospital, New Orleans, 1907

Imagine, if you will, that you have just arrived at your local hospital for a routine test. Anticipating a wait, you have brought a book. After checking in at the reception desk, you seat yourself in a plastic chair and open your book.

Very soon, however, you discover that you are unable to concentrate, because you are being bombarded by the sounds of daytime TV. Muzak you could handle, but not the dialogue of a soap opera, which is keeping you from reading the words on the page. You can’t enjoy your book, but you can’t leave either. For a while you contain your frustration, but when it becomes intolerable, you go to the reception desk to complain. There you learn that the hospital keeps the TV on because most patients want it on. A survey indicated as much. So you return to your seat, humbled and disgruntled. (more…)

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90. Being positive

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on 8 September 2011| 5 Comments »

When Ernest Hemingway was a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star, he learned four simple rules for writing well:

             1. Use short sentences.

            2. Use short first paragraphs.

            3. Use vigorous language.

            4. Be positive, not negative.

“Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing,” Hemingway later declared. “I’ve never forgotten them. No man with any talent, who feels and writes truly about the thing he is trying to say, can fail to write well if he abides with them.” (more…)

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