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. 

Jack Johnson Curious George Upside Down

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:

Google Scholar

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:

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.

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. 

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.

~H~

fin.

The Daily News
On Baseball, Babies, Brief Relief, and a
Wonderfully Amusing Interview With
the Great John Steinbeck!
Have Fun With This One!

"I have written a great many stories and I still

don't know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances."
                                            ---John Steinbeck

1   What a game!!! Incredible contest between two great teams! I reserved the first six items for talkin' baseball. I did this yesterday before the game. 

2   So. How about those Giants?

3   Secret weapons.

4   I LOVED it. I'm not an idiot (well, I'm quite certain there are those out there who beg to differ); I do know the odds, but the Dodgers have spent a LOT of time this year trying to give games away. 

5   And the Giants looked like World Champs. Wait a minute. They ARE World Champs. And they have miles and miles of heart!

6   Moving On, Part One: Once again I find myself time-traveling to yesterday afternoon; well, you might say early evening. What is 6:06 considered?

7   Night, in about a month or two. 

8   I found myself visiting the babies, when Maren screamed louder than I had ever heard her scream. Isla chimed in, but Maren damn near blew out every light bulb in Sacramento.

9   I'm pretty sure both had dirty diapers, as some sort of switch on the harmonic convergence stuff I slew out on this thing yesterday. Little savages.

10  Anybody lookin'?

11 Talk about Rage Against the Machine.

12  Ah.

13  Well, it's like they say:

14  Shit happens. 

15  I decided I could do one of two things: a) boil towels, or b) look around the net to see if I could find a good Steinbeck piece on writing. It never occurred to me to do that because I taught American Lit just one time in my entire career.

16   I didn't have to go far. I found this web sight that had the quote at the top of the page. 

17  The words "...except to write it and take my chances" jumped out at me. 

18  I found it interesting that both Stephen King and Steinbeck associated writing with fear. 

19  I get it. I never realized when I began this series that I was putting myself out there. The idea was to offer free writing tips to everyone. I didn't think people might judge. Duh. People do, pretty sure, or those two fellows wouldn't have brought the word "fear" up so often. I get it now. 

20   I find myself starting this earlier and earlier each day. It requires a tremendous amount of effort. Each sentence needs to work. I find myself poring over each item, changing things, goosing awkwardness, and pulling back abruptly when I see an astounding mistake. 

21   Yesterday I used "there" as a possessive. I wanted to jump off the hood of a Buick. It looked as though a cat had left a curly turd on my masterpiece. 

22  I never used to edit that carefully because part of the challenge of getting the DN out each day used to be getting it launched before I had to leave for work. 

23  Over the years I began these at different times of the day, but rarely at 6 p.m. 

24   9 p.m. yes, but 6 p.m. was usually a staunch no. 6 p.m was time to fire up the barbecue, put on some music, and enjoy a beverage or three. 

25  Ah, things change, probably for the better. 

26   I was on this for just a half hour last night and already had found errors. They seem to fall off the sink and onto the page like counter crumbs. 

27   Happens, but it now happens with a lot of fear. 

28   The piece posted below came from the following link. It is a great piece brought to you courtesy of the Paris Review. At first it looks challenging, but climb into it as you would a warm bath. You should find it soothing and calm. It even makes reference to the great E.B. White, in keeping with the spirit and consistency of this writing series. And it contains some great advice, as well as some wonderful anecdotes. Enjoy! As always, click on the link and not the pic:

Interviews John Steinbeck, The Art of Fiction No. 45 (Continued) Interviewed by George Plimpton and Frank Crowther

29  Told you it was long, but what a great read!

30   I discovered quite a few Steinbeck sites while cruising the net last night, but this one rose straight to the top. Some tried posting passages by Steinbeck, but displayed horrific editing. 

31  Others looked good, but were overtly sophomoric. 

32  Trusting sources becomes its own art. 

33   I won't go too much further today, as I've thrown a lot out there.

34   I'm also scared to death of looking stupid.

35   Hope you enjoyed, or will enjoy the Interview. 

36   Right now I gottago. I'm sitting around and there are all sorts of people who could use an extra hand.

37   Thanks for listening.

38   See you again.

39   Peace. 

~H~

fin.

The Daily News

1 Well howdy!

2  <faking hard-of-hearingness by cupping hand to left ear>

3

4  I said, "HOWDY!"

5  <crickets>

6   Dudes. I officially suffer from CRS.

7   My twentieth year throwing this stuff out there and now this.

8   I officially suffer from this debilitating disease which I affectionally call CRS.

9   Bazillions of people suffer this same ailment.

10  I even wrote it up in a one-act I wrote years ago.

11  I stole it from some other thing I read or heard about at the time. My theatre folks might write and remind.

12  Poopy poopy.

13  For the uninitiated, it translates roughly to "Can't Remember Shit."

14

15  All apologies to my former EV students. Didn't even know I had it in me, right? Well, I'm pretty sure you knew I was full of hell. Just cover yer eyes, kids. There's always more.

16   I'm not one to rest on laurels, so shall we move on?

17  Well thanks. 

18   Moving On, Part One: I thought to myself last night after holding Maren in my arms and then looking over at little Isla that I don't wish to be much more in this life than a G-Pa.

19   Something must be the matter with me. Who'd wish THAT on themselves?

20   <Points two thumbs to his chest> THIS guy.

21   Wow.

22   What just happened?

23   <crickets>...

24   

25   Those babies. So cute, but babies are quite a handful. 

26   Why do they not teach this stuff in school? How do you figure out feedings, balancing sleep, meals and sanity? Caitlin and Josh have amazed me. But yeesh. Shouldn't there be classes in real-life things in our schools?

27  Oh yeah. Calculus is more important than a baby's cuteness. Or their sincerity when they cry.

28  They know. They know. 

29   Moving On, Part Two: The moon.

30   Anyone else see that? If you were outside and looked up at the exact right time, you found yourself looking at the moon from Ray Bradbury's porch.

31  I saw it last night. I stepped out on Caitlin's porch and saw the moon in straight-up 3-D, only live.

32  It knocked me out. It wasn't pasted in the sky like a wafer; rather it stood spherical, lights moving all through it. I felt I should reach out and pull it out of the sky, just as a baby might reach out and snatch a ball off a chair.  

33   I don't know if that makes sense to you unless you stepped out onto a driveway and witnessed it.

34  I stared. Couldn't stay inside. I kept going outside, and then back in.

35  Okay, I'm over it. 

36   Moving On, Part Three: I'm going to continue offering free writing tips into October, because I'm still learning the process of the craft myself. 

37   East of Eden appeared again the other day on teevee. That's John Steinbeck, if you didn't already know. At one point in all of the things going on around me, I picked East of Eden off the shelf in my office, blew off the dust, and thought instantly, "No way."

38   Not a lot of teachers will admit this, but many of us don't like reading. Want that again? Many teachers don't like reading.

39   We read for a living. It's all we do when not teaching. Oh, we plan lessons as well, but we have to read and grade literally thousands of papers during the school year. 

40  During the summer, it is all about organizing everything that became disorganized during the school year.

41  That's akin to taking balls of hair out of the kitchen sink. 

42  It's glamorous, to be sure. 

43  Anyway, during a peaceful afternoon over at Caitlin's, I decided to read at least the first chapter of Eden.

44  Steinbeck fascinates me. His opening descriptions of the area between Monterey and Salinas have references to all sorts of flora. 

45  Retirement rocks sometimes because I started reading, but this time around I looked up pictures online of each image. It stunned me that most of it consisted of things one might see on a ride up the coast. Why it stunned me I don't know; it just did. It just might stun you as well. And it should teach you to give things names when you write. Be general introducing and then go in and be specific. That will be my thesis for the second part of today's DN. So. Point made. Where were we? Oh yes: being stunned by looking up the flora. Let's go.

46  I kept thinking, "Ah, THOSE!"

47   Here are the first few paragraphs WITH pictures following. I took none of these pics. Enjoy. And the writing tip today: name things. Don't just talk about flowers, for example. It's okay to use that vague term at the beginning of a sentence, but follow it up with specific flowers. So you need to learn about flowers. Writing is work. Just do it. Here is Chapter One, paragraph six of John Steinbeck's East of Eden.

48  Listen:

On the wide level acres of the valley the topsoil lay deep and fertile. It required only a rich winter of rain to make it break forth in grass and flowers. The spring flowers in a wet year were unbelievable. The whole valley floor, and the foothills too, would be carpeted with lupins and poppies. Once a woman told me that colored flowers would seem more bright if you added a few white flowers to give the colors definition. Every petal of blue lupin is edged with white, so that a field of lupins is more blue than you can imagine. And mixed with these were splashes of California poppies. These too are of a burning color— not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies. When their season was over the yellow mustard came up and grew to a great height. When my grandfather came into the valley the mustard was so tall that a man on horseback showed only his head above the yellow flowers. On the uplands the grass would be strewn with buttercups, with hen-and-chickens, with black-centered yellow violets. And a little later in the season there would be red and yellow stands of Indian paintbrush. These were the flowers of the open places exposed to the sun.


49  The guy can write.

50  Notice that the intro is pretty general: you have topsoil, grass, flowers, foothills, etc. Nothing yet named. It isn't long before we stumble upon more specifics, such as lupins, California poppies, yellow mustard, buttercups, hen-and-chickens, yellow violets, and Indian paintbrush.

51  Steinbeck knew the territory. And the specifics make it work better. Better still is if YOU look some of these up, particularly early in a book you are reading. It's nice to use your imagination, of course, but looky here:

                                                  Lupins

   California Poppies

Yellow Mustard Flowers

                              Meadow Buttercups

    

                                                                 Hen-and-Chickens

Yellow Violets

Indian Paintbrush

52   Makes me want to get into the T0000000NDRA and fly through the hills to Highway 1.

53   I'd say a ride down 101, through Salinas and over to Monterey would rock my fat socks. You turn off at a Valero station somewhere in there, just can't remember off the top of my head.

54  I'd probably bring warm clothes, a folding chair, a blanket, a Starbuck's Caramel Mac, and a dog-eared copy of East of Eden. Sip, read, and listen to the sounds of gulls, waves, and of children laughing. Feel the breeze and smell the hint of fires. 

55   Writers out there, I hope you enjoyed this relatively brief writing lesson. Give names to things. Keep in mind never to use my personal writings for anything but shits and giggles. Pretty sure my writing is at best shaky. 

56  But give things names. Most good writers know this and have studied this. 

57  End of lesson. 

58  I'm headed to the beach, at least in my frabjous mind. 

59   See you again.

60   Peace.

~H~

fin.