“Just toss him a beer and that ‘Mae West Vest’. He’ll be fine.”
“But Sir, he quit drinking months ago.”
“Well Christ! That’s probably most of his problem right there. Ok, fish him aboard. I’ll have some ‘chat’ with him; get to the nature of his ‘Urgent Urgency’.”
I’m not drownin’.
Just Flounderin’.
***
But toss me That Mae any-wayyy.
You may keep the beer.
Just asking advice / feedback from
‘The Community’
‘My Community’
‘Our Community’
The ‘Blogging / Writing Community.’
The ‘La Cosa Nostra’ of our ‘Unique Community’
“Uh, Lance?”
“Yes?”
“Is there something, anything, anything at all you are about to actually ask us?”
“Uh, yeah, Yeah. Sorry, got carried away by the current there for a sec.”
“Go on.”
“In truth, it’s just a simple question. Not really much to it at all in fact. But, in my recent writings… not so much the ‘writings’ per se, not sure I’d ever call some of them ‘writing’. It’s more about well, kinda embarrassing to ask, but you see, when constructing… or is it ‘destructing’… or perhaps re-constructing the previously de-constructed or de-constructing the previously con-structed, or just possibly…”
“As Brevity is the Soul of Wit, I shall be Brief”
“More Matter With Less Art“
“Enough! Good God Man! Get To-The-Bloody-Point!”
“Alright already! Sheesh! My query is thus…”
“Is the font I’ve been using too large? Do you think my readers find it obnoxious? Obtrusive? Even abusive to the eye? Self aggrandizing even? I use it ‘cause I can’t see for shit these days and…”
“Yeah, Yeah! We get your point. Finally! We’ll take your request under sober consideration and get back to you presently.”
“Next!”
“I just want to express my deepest, humblest, sincerest thank you for what…”
“Are you still Here Marcom? You have been summarily dismissed! You will hear from us presently. Now haul ass!”
“Thank you. Thank you all. Y’all…”
“BE GONE!”
*Lance slowly and deliberately backs out of the room. Softly closing the door behind him*
***
‘Verbosity’ is the Soul of My (and Sponge Bob’s) Wit
Well, I’d like to think so…
Spongebob Theme But Overly Verbose
Street Cred for Vid: Gigaflare8822
***
Author’s Note:
(At the end this time)
Of late I have been committing The First & Worst Deadly Sin:
‘Burying The Lede’
This unhappy behaviour must cease and desist immediately.
***
Here is the ‘Note’ Placed in its Proper Place:
I am taking a ‘brief’ break from re-writing ‘Shonnie.’
Bringing her back into me, back into my life, reliving her, re-falling-in-love-with-her, horribly missing her…
And as much excitement and joy as I may expierence in the re-riding of that emotional roller-coaster enterprise, bringing her back has, of late, become too emotionally painful for me.
I just need a break.
So I am taking one.
Maybe.
Shonnie is exhausting.
Yet exhilarating to remember.
She wore me out once.
Now she is doing it all-over-again…
“Way to go Shonnie. Wish you could see me now. You would, no doubt, laugh your little darling ass off.”
***
***
Some Added ‘Added Value’ below for all you ‘Word Nerds’ out there in Radio Land.
(You’re Welcome)
***
Why is it Spelled “Lede”
The spelling lede is an alteration of lead, a word which, on its own, makes sense; after all, isn’t the main information in a story found in the lead (first) paragraph? And sure enough, for many years lead was the preferred spelling for the introductory section of a news story.
So how did we come to spell it lede?
Although evidence dates the spelling to the 1970s, we didn’t enter lede in our dictionaries until 2008. For much of that time, it was mostly kept under wraps as in-house newsroom jargon.
Once, Al Marlens, the assistant managing editor, told one of the cleaning men to walk up to me and ask to see my lede, “not lead,” a newsie slang for the first sentence of a story.
—Myron S. Waldman, Forgive Us Our Press Passes, 1991
Spelling the word as lede helped copyeditors, typesetters, and others in the business distinguish it from its homograph lead (pronounced \led\ ), which also happened to refer to the thin strip of metal separating lines of type (as in a Linotype machine). Since both uses were likely to come up frequently in a newspaper office, there was a benefit to spelling the two words distinctly.
William Safire, who knew a thing or two about newsrooms, wrote in his New York Times “On Language” column in 1990, “Wouldn’t it be easier if the noun for the metal were spelled the way it sounded (led, to rhyme with dead) and the noun for the beginning of a newspaper story were spelled the way it is pronounced (lede, or leed, to rhyme with deed)?”
Others have been less than willing to embrace the new spelling. At The Awl, founder Choire Sicha tore out at those who use lede like it’s an affectation:
You schmucks who use ridiculous journo-terms make me crazy! Finally, someone is willing to speak out against the use of “lede” in public. Because, ha ha, sucka, there’s no reason for it! (Plus, MOST OF YOU ARE JUST BLOGGERS.)
—Choire Sicha, The Awl, 19 Sept. 2011
That “someone” was Howard Owens, a writer who has speculated that the flourishing of lede in the 1970s is ironic given that Linotype machines were starting to be phased out from newsrooms around that time. Owens attributes the fondness for the spelling to nostalgia, calling it “an invention of linotype romanticists, not something used in newsrooms of the linotype era.”
Despite the acknowledgment of lede by Safire and others, and its subsequent use by journalists and non-journalists alike, phrases employing the traditional spelling of lead still find their way into print:
But because I didn’t want Marshall’s piece to get lost in a big evening, I’ve buried the lead: The New Music Group was followed by a late-night appearance of wild Up, with Christopher Rountree conducting his increasingly impressive young ensemble in three more premieres
Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2016
Needless to say, don’t want to bury the lead, but I think there could be a second day of down for Apple (AAPL) — said so myself in a video I did with Jack Mohr (see above) — but if you don’t own any, by all means don’t let me stop you from buying some.
Jim Cramer, TheStreet.com, 26 Oct. 2016
This is sure to become one of those longstanding usage debates that will have its hard-liners on both sides, and perhaps reveal a little bit about the writer’s familiarity with the news business.
Credit:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-versus-lead
Fuck You WordPress!
(Had to Get THAT In)
David Scott Moyer,
Really? Do you mean you lost connection mid comment. or did you post the comment and lose connect as it was uploading. This upsets me. I appreciate all comments. Even the critical ones. Especially the critical ones in fact.
Computers piss me off sometimes. I have lost comments in similar fashion. What I have started doing is writing my comments into a Word document, then posting.
This ensures I never lose my comment and if it gets blown away due to some technical bullshit error, I still have the bloody comment and can try to post it again.
Just a suggestion.
David,
I thank you for your visit and for both comments. The one I can see and the one I am forced to speculate on.
Cheers,
Lance
I just left a well thought out brilliantly composed comment, but my connection was terminated on your end. I’m so sorry you were deprived of the pleasure.
Thank you so much my friend John.
From you, that flatters.
You know your time is always appreciated.
Cheers.
And yeah, if every man had a Mae-for-Play, there would be ‘World Peace.’
A Mae west vest. I want one too. Enjoyed the tale my friend.