Writing tip: always chek your spelling

Wordguy, presidential speechifier, Pulitizer Prize-winner and columnist William Safire (1929-2009) died this weekend. You might enjoy the following, his "useful writing advice."

1. No sentence fragments.
2. It behooves us to avoid archaisms.
3. Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.
4. Don't use no double negatives.
5. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, "Resist hyperbole!"
6. Avoid commas, that are not necessary.
7. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
8. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
9. Writing carefully, dangling participles should not be used.
10. Kill all exclamation points!!!
11. Never use a long word with a diminutive one will do.
12. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
13. Take the bull by the hand and don't mix metaphors.
14. Don't verb nouns.
15. Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
16. Last but not least, avoid clichés like the plague.
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Went to the play at the Dixie Friday night then went to the Waffle House where some nice people said hey to me; they knew me when I was 4 years old! "You look the same," they said. I asked them, "You don't think I'm taller?"...

Got tires Saturday morning, and it hurt me as I figured it would. Love my tire people though. Oil change after that. (The early morning was vehicle-oriented.) Worked out and studied and ate at 2 with my son and the Von Frapps. (There was 'an incident' at Chili's so we had to go to the Mexican place.) Actually, watched them eat. Walked a few miles and watched the Florida game with Jeeves and my little sis, a big Gator fan. I watched until her team had things well in hand: in other words, I watched the first seven minutes.

Worked and walked Saturday night, watched some ball. Pretty neat Texas Tech-Houston game. For the first time since I've moved to Ruston, went to Wal-Mart. Went at 1245 Saturday night because I couldn't sleep and because I wanted to surprise my son with a Key Lime Pie Sunday. But they didn't have Key Lime juice at Super One during reasonable shopping hours and Wal-Mart didn't have any either at the unreasonable time I went. It wasn't crowded though, except for the four police cruisers that pulled up while I was there. Maybe someone had shoplifted all the Key Lime juice.

Sunday was good news at Sunday school in that all seven of our starting day lineup showed up, plus one new member. Only two fell asleep! Will post Sermon-in-a-Stick notes later.

Saw news clips of a flooded city overseas where they, too, have been getting lots of rain. The people were walking down the street in thigh-deep water -- and several were holding umbrellas. Think about that...

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