Silly Phrases

Posted on by Mike 2 Comments

Have you ever noticed how some people always use certain adjectives with particular nouns? TV and TV news is famous for this practice, but we all do it. Here’s a partial list to get you started. How many can you come up with?

  1. Innocent children. Why is it that children are always innocent? If you’ve ever had kids, you’ll know that this prase is entirely erroneous. Innocent victims is in the same category. To be fair, the “innocent” usually doesn’t refer to the child’s or victim’s moral or legal culpability. I usually means they didn’t deserve what happened to them
  2. Nice cup of tea. As in, “Here, let me fix you a nice cup of tea.” This is mostly used in British novels and TV programs, but we Americans use it too. Why not just say, “A cup of tea?”
  3. Good money. As in, “I gave good money for that truck and now it’s broke.” I don’t know how money can have moral character.
  4. All new. This usually refers to episodes of programs on TV. It has a clever ring to it. It sounds better than, “New.” I guess they’re implying that the episode is 100% new as opposed to 25% new. What producer would only change 25% of a previous episode, anyway. Oh yeah, I forgot Lost.
  5. Senseless violence. What violence makes sense anyway? Sheesh.
  6. Random act of violence. Like the person committing the violence is committing it randomly. Even the shooter in the Jerk picked the name out of a phone book. Violence happens on purpose, folks, not randomly.

Ok, now it’s your turn. How many of these silly phrases can you come up with?

Dunedin

Posted on by Mike 1 Comment


Dunedin		 Here’s another daylily that’s blooming now. This one is a fairly long bloomer…last year it bloomed for 107 days. As with LeeBea Orange Crush, I have two clumps, one more shaded than the other, so I expect to increase the bloom period this year.This is one of the varieties I brought from Indianapolis when we moved in February 2004. At the time I didn’t realize that this variety was named after a town on Florida’s west coast just north of Clearwater. It certainly is thriving unlike some of the varieties I hauled down here with me.

Another Daylily

Posted on by Mike 3 Comments


LeeBea Orange Crush		 I’ve got four daylily varieties blooming now. Here’s one of my favorites. It’s a cute little thing, only about 14 inches tall, but is very prolific in it’s midpoint of blooming. It only bloomed for about a month last year. I’m hoping for much longer this year. I have two groupings of them, only one of which is blooming now. The other has more shade, so that should delay it and extend the season. Here’s hoping.

High Profile

Posted on by Mike

I love to read anything by Robert B. Parker. His characters are so vivid, complex, and compelling that I just want to keep on reading even when the book is done. Spenser, a hardboiled but sensitive Boston PI, was one of my favorite characters of all time. But I’m beginning to love Jesse Stone, an alcoholic police chief of Paradise, Mass. As adept he is at understanding the crime solving process, he is inept at understanding his relationship with his ex-wive, Jenn.

But why I enjoy reading Parker is his mastery of dialog. Here are some examples from High Profile, his latest book. These are conversations between Chief Jesse Stone and one of his policemen, Suitcase Simpson.

After an interview with Conrad Lutz, who would later become a suspect in a multiple homicide:

“It means Lutz lied to us,” he said.

“Or at least left stuff out,” Jesse said.

“We maybe should ask him about that?” Suit said.

“Sooner or later,” Jesse said.

“First, you want to get all your ducks in a row?”

“I’d settle for getting them herded into the same area,” Jesse said. Read more