The Daily News
1 Well.
2 Congrats to the Dodgers and to their fans. You had no business allowing the Giants to remain with one more day until October. But you made it.
3 Kershaw. Dude, you and Mad Bum started out shaky. But your stuff got fierce. Amazing amount of swings and misses. That's good pitching folks. Clinic.
4 Am I bummed out (pardon the pun)? No, no, not really.
5 Just look at me.
6 Song reference. Another congrats, truly. And Giants. You need to become healthy. I can't even imagine what these games would have been. Your best guy got our best guy yesterday, and he showed MLB just who he is. Gotta feel nice. Hats off.
7 Moving On, Part One: I again devoted the first six items to baseball. That's as it should be. But it is now time to move on. So here go: I found myself going a bit daft reading all the Steinbeck stuff the past two days. I loved writing the stuff because it had so much to teach, and so much more to learn.
8 We climbed right into the mind of that guy.
9 I've a confession to make.
10 I hadn't completely finished the entire piece when I sent it, so I didn't see that it ended in metaphorical ellipses...
11 SMHY.
12 That translates roughly to, "Shaking my head, y'all."
13 SMH.
14 Moving On, Part Two: I began today's DN last night just before the ball game.
15 I jumped online to see where I had left off last week (or was it Monday? Oh, bother.) regarding the Glossary of Usage I was in the midst of throwing out there when I hopped on Facebook to get my own DN link.
16 Does that make any sense? In the midst of all this madness I won't go into, I got an message.
17 One of my favorite former Y.B. students, Corrine Tumova, (include cool little dashes and stuff both over the u and a in her name), sent me this awesome thing called Google Scholar.
18 I swooned. It's like having UPS drop a Christmas present at your doorstep. You open it and light up like a Christmas tree (I couldn't resist!).
19 Now I'm trying to read all the instructions, looking at thing upside-down and right-side up.
10 Curious George.
11 This goes out to all my former students.
Mix.
(Note: the Mix will seem to have timed out. Leave it. It magically returns with Johnson's epic piece Breakdown, my personal favorite. That son killed me during my final days teaching at EV.).
12 Thanks Corrine. This rocked me right into pure mirth. I'm pretty sure I lost my balance, but I blame my big ol' socks. They slide ridiculously on these hardwood floors.
13 Big smiles up in here.
14 EV, if you in the house give a shout out. Miss you guys. You're a part of this entire series, and a huge part of my life.
15 No doubt about it; I need to lay off the lemonade when I write this stuff.
16 Sugar highs. Whew. Scary. Don't do this at home, kids.
17 Here is the link, even though all you really need do is Google it. I just thought I'd offer a fast means of going there:
Warning: a whole bunch of stuff is scientific in nature, and therefore impossible to understand. But you can also find some wonderful stuff. I stumbled upon a letter Steinbeck sent to a former Stanford college mate, one Webster F. Street, who had the nickname Toby.
18 I liked it because Steinbeck was in Tahoe, my personal stomping ground, alone, in the dark, once again talking about fear. Priceless. He heard a noise outside, and opened the door to check things out. Stay with me: this is another teaching moment. But a fun one, since it includes both Tahoe and Monterey. So trust me on this; it's worth continuing.
19 Dude. I've been in Tahoe outside at night. Not a lot of coyotes. There ARE a lot of bears though. They scare the hell out of me, because I've seen them in the dark more times than I care to think about. This was in the winter, for the record, and I am a summertime Tahoe guy.
Toby, by the way, lived in Monterey.
20 I got chills reading this. Here it is:
21 What struck me about this piece is that it was unedited. The first sentence, for example, is wordy and awkwardly structured. Had he edited, it may have read like this:
As you might already know, one of the things that made me come up here is that I am frightfully afraid of being alone.
18 I liked it because Steinbeck was in Tahoe, my personal stomping ground, alone, in the dark, once again talking about fear. Priceless. He heard a noise outside, and opened the door to check things out. Stay with me: this is another teaching moment. But a fun one, since it includes both Tahoe and Monterey. So trust me on this; it's worth continuing.
19 Dude. I've been in Tahoe outside at night. Not a lot of coyotes. There ARE a lot of bears though. They scare the hell out of me, because I've seen them in the dark more times than I care to think about. This was in the winter, for the record, and I am a summertime Tahoe guy.
Toby, by the way, lived in Monterey.
20 I got chills reading this. Here it is:
To Webster F. Street
Lake Tahoe
Winter 1926
Monday
Dear Toby:
Do you know, one of the things that made me come up here, was, as you guessed, that I am frightfully afraid of being alone. The fear of the dark is only part of it. I wanted to break that fear in the middle, because I am afraid much of my existence is going to be more or less alone, and I might as well go into training for it. It comes on me at night mostly, in little waves of panic, that constrict something in my stomach.
But don't you think it is good to fight these things? Last night a large animal came and sniffed under the door. I presume it was a coyote, though I do not know. The moon had not come up, and when I ran outside there was nothing to be seen. But the main thing was, I was frightened, even though I knew it could be nothing but a coyote. Don't tell any one I am afraid. I do not like to be suspected of being afraid.
As you might already know, one of the things that made me come up here is that I am frightfully afraid of being alone.
22 Yes, I just edited Steinbeck. Why? Because he showed his fear, and his fear wound up in an unedited letter to a friend. I had the guy right where I wanted him.
23 To any writers out there shaking their heads, have a look. That's how you edit. You go through each sentence and if need be, you change it.
24 Not convinced? Let's look a his second-to-the last sentence:
Don't tell any one I am afraid.
25 Can you see what's wrong with that sentence?
26
27 Okay.
28 It's anyone, dawg.
29 That's how you edit. It's that simple. Get an old copy of Warriner's English Grammar and Composition, Fourth Course,I'm telling you, and keep it by your side along with Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing. The latter two can be purchased in any large book store, and the Warriner's stuff can be purchased online for almost nothing.
30 Whooooooops. My laptop is jumping letters all over the place again. I must have pushed some sort of goofy button.
31 Ironically there is a movie on, A Matter of Life and Death and it has David Niven about to jump out of an airplane.
32 That would appear to be my cue to bail.
33 You know me and coincidences, so I'm opening the door.
34 It's been fun. But I'm going to bail.
35 Have a GREAT day.
36 See you again.
37 Peace.
23 To any writers out there shaking their heads, have a look. That's how you edit. You go through each sentence and if need be, you change it.
24 Not convinced? Let's look a his second-to-the last sentence:
Don't tell any one I am afraid.
25 Can you see what's wrong with that sentence?
26
27 Okay.
28 It's anyone, dawg.
29 That's how you edit. It's that simple. Get an old copy of Warriner's English Grammar and Composition, Fourth Course,I'm telling you, and keep it by your side along with Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing. The latter two can be purchased in any large book store, and the Warriner's stuff can be purchased online for almost nothing.
30 Whooooooops. My laptop is jumping letters all over the place again. I must have pushed some sort of goofy button.
31 Ironically there is a movie on, A Matter of Life and Death and it has David Niven about to jump out of an airplane.
32 That would appear to be my cue to bail.
33 You know me and coincidences, so I'm opening the door.
34 It's been fun. But I'm going to bail.
35 Have a GREAT day.
36 See you again.
37 Peace.
~H~
fin.
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