The Daily News

Home, Sweet Home!

1  Here they are, safe and sound.

2  Storks knock.

3  Parents answer.

4  Not rocket sci.

5  I love the pic because it looks as though they traveled through the clouds and landed safely home.

6  It wasn't that easy, but it sure made for a lovely, albeit busy afternoon yesterday.

7  Maren and Isla. Isla and Maren. We'll color code them so you can tell.

8  Long journey, but now worth it. 

9  Congratulations again go out to Josh and Caitlin, who have braved it through what must have been an exhausting and emotional ride.

10  These two princesses eat every couple of hours. We stayed the evening last night listening to this fun CD that had gorgeous piano lullabies, including The Rainbow Connection, Edelweiss, When You Wish Upon a Star, and an assortment of like tunes: beautiful songs we've all heard.

11  We feasted on crock-pot nachos, made with pork loin and love. The comfort food worked. A house  should have good food cooking at all hours, especially with new babies.

12  I didn't really get a chance to do much with today's DN except jot notes down, and proceed writing English lessons.

13  That becomes almost a train wreck when the focus belongs on those tiny marvels above.

14  I find myself looking over and sighing. Josh and Caitlin still remind me of Star Wars characters steering the Mothership through the wackiness of the Universe.

15  We pulled away last night pretty late. 

16  All became peaceful.

17  Lovely.

18  Just...I can't find the words.

19  Lovely.

20  Moving On, Part One: The nice thing about all of this is I don't have to look at fourteen bazillion Republicans getting obscured by a guy who looks like an umpire. 

21   Have a look:

Yer out!!!

22  He looks so Presidential.

23  Here's the REAL Donald, at least in my life right now:

24  No contest.

25  So I'm staying away from politicians, teevee, morons, Taylor Swift, Duran Duran Duran, and living in the past. 

26  At least for now. The noises, the glitz, the non-news annoys me. 

27  At one point yesterday I realized that we cooked, talked, laughed, and had no teevee going. No sports, no murders, no banal movies, just the smells of good food cooking, the peace of sleeping babies, and nice times.

28   I'm almost ready to turn off the television for good.

29   I won't, but let me tell you.

30   De-media should be an action verb. We all need to de-media.

31   Moving On, Part Two: <baby yawn>

32   I've watched lots of baby yawns the past few days. They often turn into a bit of a twisted smile. They make me smile. They just do. Well. Enough of that.

33   I need to squeeze an English lesson into all of this.

34   If you write, please follow. If you're bored, stay easily amused by other stuff. Not my worry.

35   I caught this award-winning quote from a book called WritingTools by Roy Peter Clark.

36   Fun read by a guy who writes about writing. 

37    I like this book for a number of reasons.

38    Among this treasure trove of sensible writing advice, Mr. Clark included this quote from George Orwell:

Never use the passive where you can do the active.

39   One of the greatest words of advice in the history of the human race.

40   SMH.

41   That's a Facebook nonsensical. There are many. It means, "Shaking my head." Let's put that into what Orwell shortens to "the passive" (he deliberately left out the word "voice" because he assumes his readers know this term. A lot of readers don't know this term because grammar is vanishing at an alarming rate). Here is SMH translated via the passive voice, which Orwell appears to despise:

42   Passive voice translation: "My head is being shaken by me." But how do you "...do the active" you ask? Like this:

       

        Active voice translation: "I shake my head. I just do."

43   Practical application: How do I do this? In general, kill all helping verbs. Annihilate hads, haves, was's, weres, and all linking verbs, which we will attack sometime soon. 

44   Technical application, active voice: The action focuses on the subject of the sentence: Watch the noun explosion in the following sentence: 

EXAMPLE  The explosion shook the entire city. STRONG. The focus, or action centers on the explosion, which is the subject of the sentence.

45   Technical application, passive voice: The action focuses on an object receiving the action in a sentence: The entire city was shaken by the explosion.  WEAK. The focus centers on the object receiving the shaking, the city. 

46   That weakens the sentence. 

47   Rule of thumb: Rid yourself of helping verbs and steer your sentences using the active voice. Take words like was, is, have, had, could have, would have, and all the other helpers and toss them in a garbage bin. Here's one I always use: John threw the ball. STRONG.

48   WEAK and inactive: The ball was thrown by John.

49    Begin most sentences with a subject and active verb. Trains pull. Dentists extract. Horses stomp. 

The kicker punted Alfred E. Newman into the end zone. STRONG.

50    WEAK and inactive: Alfred E. Newman was punted into the end zone by the kicker. Sometimes zero in and be specific:

51   STRONGER: Zanwiliski punted Alfred E. Newman into the end zone.

52   End of lesson.

53    More to come.

54   Gottago. 

55   Have a GREAT weekend.

56   See you again.

57   Peace.

~H~

fin.