Birthday

[kurt]

It's important to remember........

It's the birthday of grammarian and professor William Strunk, Jr., born in Cincinnati, Ohio (1869). He's best known for his work The Elements of Style, which he wrote in 1918, while he was an English professor at Cornell University, in order "to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention ... on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated." The original edition of 1918, printed privately, was only 43 pages long.

It became a classic when E. B. White, who was once a student of his, published a revised 1959 edition, about a decade after Strunk's death. White updated in 1972, this time replacing some of Strunk's outdated examples with modern ones; White published yet another edition in 1979. Strunk championed active voice over passive voice, staying with one verb tense, and precise, concrete language. In his book, he gave examples of poor use of language in one column, and then in a parallel column gave examples of correct, fluid, and lucid style.

William Strunk said, "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."

And, "It is worse to be irresolute than to be wrong."

[Bain]

Thanks for the info.

Happy Birthday, Billy.

[ozofprev]

Thanks Kurt. You da man!

[Brandon Chew]

"It is worse to be irresolute than to be wrong."

Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. I think I might recommend further evaluation of that statement by an appropriately qualified professional ... or not. []

[Brian G]

The birthday was noted by the home inspectors, especially the ones who write good. [:-slaphap

Brian G.

Strunk & White Is Not a Rap Duo [:-graduat

[Brad Manor]

It's also Canada's birthday today.... Happy Canada Day []

-Brad

[Mark P]

1977 Liv Tyler (actress)

1967 Pamela Anderson (actress, model)

1961 Carl Lewis (athlete)

1961 Princess Diana (Spencer) (Former Princess of Wales, humanitarian, activist)

1961 Michelle Wright (country singer)

1956 Alan Ruck (actor)

1952 Dan Aykroyd (comedian, actor)

1945 Deborah Harry (singer)

1942 Genevieve Bujold (actress)

1942 Karen Black (Ziegler) (actress)

1941 Twyla Tharp (choreographer, dancer)

1934 Sydney Pollack (director)

1934 Jean Marsh (actress)

1934 Jamie Farr (Jameel Farah) (actor)

1931 Leslie Caron (actress)

1930 Bobby Day (Byrd) (singer)

1925 Farley Granger (actor)

1916 Olivia DeHavilland (actress(0

1915 Willie Dixon (blues musician, songwriter, producer)

1908 Estee Lauder (cosmetics mogul)

1902 William Wyler (director)

[ghentjr]

and a machine no unnecessary parts.""]

Me and my daddy would disagree with that. Happy birthday Mr. Strunk, but if my daddy's old Chevy coupe had only necessary parts it would not have run after the first time he worked on it. Our "extra parts box" (or is that leftover chads) weighed about 40 lbs and the car still ran like a charm.

[Jim Morrison]

Strunk, like most grammarians, sounds like a genius and an insufferable boor. Kurt is right for remembering him, but tonight, I raise my glass to Klinger; the funniest transvestite in the 4077th!

[Phillip]

Kinger was a dude. I still watch M.A.S.H.

But I still like watching Pamela Anderson run down the beach and hearing Deborah Harry sing.