Greetings,

One of the many unsolicited emails I received this week was attempting to interest me in:

"... a viripotent cannabis alternative for blissful regressions of vexatious depressions..." 

Now, I don't know about you, but I certainly have my share of "vexatious depressions" in any one week and could certainly do with "... a viripotent ... alternative for blissful regressions" of aforementioned vexatious depressions! 

My current "vexatious depressions" are partly attributable to the fact that our front garden looks more like it should be the film footage on the 6 o'clock news, accompanying a story on bombing raids  ...

Yes, we're renovating outside now. After blissful months of having our home to ourselves, we've once again opened our doors and our wallets to tradesmen. This time we've had our front fence and gates removed and all the garden and lawn dug out to a depth of ...oh ... about five fathoms ... give or take a few centimetres.

The bobcat came last Friday, wreaking havoc in its own merry little way as only a bobcat can. The pavers were to be laid "first thing Monday" ...

The semi arrived and unloaded the pavers "first thing Monday;" the gravel base and sand was dumped on the front drive - next to the piles of soil the bobcat had kindly left for us to use to fill our new gardens; the Paver-Layers arrived, surveyed the scene of devastation before them, had a cup of coffee, decided that the ground was too wet after the shower of rain the night before and vanished in a puff of exhaust fumes.

But they're here now, four men, three wheelbarrows, two trucks and several shovels. The first shovel that made contact with terra firma did so via our main water pipe - but we have water again now, and we can all laugh about it ... ha-ha-ha ....

It's wonderful to see our ideas taking shape at last and I'm impressed at how these four make what must be incredibly hard physical work look so easy. 

This is the secret of any successful operation, isn't it? Making whatever it is look simple. 

There you are ... we've arrived safely, after stumbling over the rubble of my front yard, at this week's topic - simplicity. Our bitsy front garden with its bit of lawn, its bit of paving and its bit of garden is to be replaced by an expanse of paving edged with a garden of palms - simple, uncluttered and soothing. This, too, should be your aim when writing.

Here's a terrific tip, taken from William Zinsser's classic On Writing Well. He advises putting brackets around any clutter:

Often it was just one word that got bracketed: the unnecessary preposition appended to a verb ("order up"), or the adverb that carries the same meaning as the verb ("smile happily"), or the adjective that states a known fact ("tall skyscraper"). Often (the) brackets surrounded the little qualifiers that weaken any sentence they inhabit ("a bit" "sort of"), or the announcements like "I'm tempted to say." 

Learn to put mental brackets around all the unnecessary words in your own writing and you'll find that you can probably cut your first drafts by 50 percent.

Here are some examples of verbose expressions (and their simple equivalents):

Read your own work and see how often you could use brackets - yes, I know I could use bucket-loads of brackets here ... but this is chatting, you know, just between friends ... altogether different.

While we're on the subject ... here's an item I heard on the radio this morning:

"Aviation experts are expected to concentrate their investigations on what went wrong with the plane before it crashed."

Umm ... gosh ...

Last week's reference to the word "imminent" prompted Richard to respond:

Richard English www.retraining-uk.com 

Of course Richard is absolutely correct ... just shows what can happen when you're rushing.

Thank you for the responses to my request for information about the bombing raids in Lebanon - Rod now has several useful sites to visit, and offers of help with translating.

This week's quiz:

Here are some of those comments that most definitely fall under the heading of "I Wish I Hadn't Said That" ...

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" --H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." --Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

Does that make you feel better? See? It's not just you.

If you know anyone who would like to subscribe to The Write Way, please send them a personal invitation to join us each Friday, just cut and paste this link and email it to them: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogroups.com 

Last week's quiz:

Match each word with its definition:

transient- temporary, fleeting

qualify- to limit

nascent- coming into existence, emerging

Quixotic- extravagantly chivalrous, romantically idealistic, impractical

reprobate- person hardened in sin; one devoid of decency

libertine- immoral person

tractable- easily influenced, obedient, docile

craven- cowardly

picaresque- involving clever rogues or adventurers. Don't confuse with "picturesque," which means picture-like, charming, or quaint.

sedulous- diligent, assiduous, devoted to a task

Here's a wonderful little story that always makes me laugh ... but if you're easily offended, you'd better scroll past it:

Word of the Week: Syzygy n. A conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun.

"If you look up at the sky and see the full moon, you're witnessing an example of syzygy. From our point of view the sun is then on the opposite side of the sky to the moon, and so is said to be in opposition to it. The three are also in syzygy at new moon, this time with the moon and the sun next to each other in the sky - a state called conjunction.

"The word appeared in English in the seventeenth century, and at first could apply only to conjunctions. It comes via late Latin from the Greek suzugia, which derives from suzugos, yoked or paired. It was not until a century later that its meaning was extended to cover opposition, in defiance of its etymology. The word also has a couple of rarer meanings in mathematics and poetry. Lovers of wordplay may know it as the shortest word in the language containing three ys." (Weird Words)

Scrabble Players, no, no, please... no need to thank me for finding this word for you ... just send money to my Running Away Fund.

Tautology of the week:  total abstinence

You can use this week's Latin phrase as a conversation-filler:

Visne scire quod credam? Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere. (You know what I think? I think Elvis is alive.)

VIS-nay SKI-ray kwod KRAY-dam? KRAY-doh EL-vem IP-soom AY-tee-am vi-VER-ray.

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