Number 2
Some responses to the first issue of Parvum Opus:
“…good idea…” (and a request to mail it with a blind e-mail list. OK.)
“I love your newsletter! I sent it to all the teachers in my building!”
“Kinda cool…kinda poopy. Verbal slap therapy.”
“Now I'm really going to be on guard against improper usage... I don’t want to be the subject of a future installment.” (Don’t be like that! I’m verbally slapping myself for that typo in the first issue, which wasn’t really a typo but possibly an accidental elbow on the keyboard -- a gremlin “blessing” the beginning of this venture.)
“…maybe I'm old fashioned as I thought that actionable only meant that some sort of legal action could be taken…. Please send this to me in plain text rather than mime format.” (You’re not old fashioned, you’re right. And I am sending this issue without html coding for easier downloading, although I hate to lose the bold face, italics, etc.)
A short-short story I wrote is getting honorable mention (but not publication) in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, March 2003. You can read “Shocking Secrets” at www.keithops.us/fiction. And check out the cool BabelFish translator at the bottom of the page -- it translates the story (imperfectly) into 8 languages!
Two common phrases often misused, for different reasons or non-reasons, and in different ways, are “as well as” and “as far as it goes.” There is also a common cause of misuse, and that is the difficulty of constructing a complex sentence out of a simple basic phrase without losing track of what you’re saying.
“As well as” is not a substitute for “and” in a series. For example, “I bought blocks, a videotape, a harmonica, as well as books for the kids.” Because the elements of the series are short (blocks, a videotape, etc.), you might sense that this doesn’t sound quite right. If the elements were longer phrases, you might not notice, as in: “I bought a little box of blocks that form picture puzzles, a videotape on wolves and a book that goes with it, a harmonica with a simple instruction book, as well as story books for the kids.”
“As well as” does not mean simply “and.” It suggests that the last element of the series is something a bit different from the rest, so this series might read, “I bought blocks, a videotape, and a harmonica, as well as books, for the kids.” This sentence puts a somewhat different emphasis on “books” – perhaps I’d already been talking about the books I bought, or I want to make the point that books are a different kind of gift.
To clarify: I might say, “I bought toys as well as books for the kids.” There should be a reason for using “as well as” rather than “and” in a sentence like this.
Remember, “as well as” not only adds something at the end, it points to and distinguishes that element.
“I’d rather do all my shopping online than go to the mall! It’s crazy out there!”
(1) “As far as that goes, shopping at the mall is not only impossible during the holidays, it’s boring because there are nothing but chain stores.”
(2) “As far as shopping at the mall goes, it’s not only impossible during the holidays, it’s boring because there are nothing but chain stores.”
(3) “As far as shopping at the mall during the holidays, it’s not only impossible, it’s boring because there are nothing but chain stores.”
“As far as [it] goes” is a handy bit of verbal scaffolding, but it’s often left incomplete, leaving the intended thought dangling like a window washer at 30 stories. In the three examples above, you can see how a speaker (and sometimes a writer) can progressively lose control of the idiom. The first two are correct, but the third has lost an essential element, “goes.” The speaker has replaced “that” or “it” with the pronoun’s referent, which is lengthy enough that she has lost track of the beginning of her sentence. This is forgivable, though grating, in speech, but watch out for it in writing.
To clarify: It wouldn’t make sense to say or write, “As far as it, shopping at the mall is not only impossible during the holidays, it’s boring because there are nothing but chain stores.” But that is what happened in example 3, when “it” is replaced by a long phrase.
Remember, “as far as it goes” is all right as long as it goes far enough.
Copyright Rhonda Keith 2002. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but it is permissible to forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.
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