Fallow

Barking . . . absolutely barking

as only the English can be at times. I made time to watch Two Men Went to War at the week-end. It is an account of events that one would believe could not have happened. But they did. A sergeant and Private of the Army Dental Corps land on the northern coast of occupied France in 1942 on a mission to blow up the Scharnhorst . . . with hand-grenades . . . and without permission.

     The paragraph I quoted in the last post from the book I'm reading made me wonder if a journey in the opposite direction made by a Jewish boy with crates of artwork and furniture would have been possible in 1942?

Sunset

and a rainbow from a week ago

and the hill again this evening

     Finished reading Death In Venice. This novella should be read at one sitting. That is I should read in a secluded place where I can not be disturbed or distracted.

I am now reading a French mystery in translation published last year in France as Le Paradoxe de Vasalis. This paragraph in chapter two gave me pause:

      This didn't stop Jacob and his family finding themselves utterly alone when the SS came for them in August 1942. After a stay at the Dracy Interment Camp, they were sent to Dachau. Happily, a week earlier, an intuition had caused Jacob to send his eldest son to London, accompanying several containers full of pictures, sculptures and furniture.

 

Came across this

When rummaging through old files  . . . 

Rules of "gooder" grammar

   1.      Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects. 'course these days you're just as likely to see confusion among there, their and they're.
   2.      Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. Unless you are Winston Churchill, "This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."
   3.      And don't start a sentence with a conjunction. But I'm sure lots of writers do it?
   4.      It is wrong to ever split an infinitive. Yeah, if you're writing Latin.
   5.      Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat)
   6.      Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
   7.      Be more or less specific. Vague ambiguity is much more fun to puzzle out
   8.      Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary. Guilty.
   9.      Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies. Or redundant tautology
  10      No sentence fragments. Guilty again.
  11      Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
  12      Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
  13      Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
  14      One should NEVER generalise. See number seven.
  15      Comparisons are as bad as cliches. Metaphor is more demanding
  16      Don't use no double negatives.
  17.      Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
  18.      One word sentences? Eliminate.
  19.      Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
  20.      The passive voice is to be ignored.
  21.      Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
  22.      Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
  23.      Kill all exclamation points !!!!
  24.      Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
  25.      Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth shaking ideas.
  26.      Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed. Ha, ha.
  27.      Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." See number two.
  28.      If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
  29.      Puns are for children, not groan readers. Augh.
  30.      Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
  31.      Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
  32.      Who needs rhetorical questions ?
  33.      Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

AND FINALLY....

 34. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. I often words out.

author unknown: circulated by e-mail

Rain . . .

     This is how green the hill this afternoon from the rain of the past few weeks. It's not been this green for over ten years.