Recently, I read 2 accounts which made me realize the importance of descriptors.

The first was simple, but moving. A 9-year-old girl describing her father (a policeman): "He is strong, truthful, loving, caring, kind, nice, neat, healthy, handsome, tall, courageous, responsible, fair, wealthy, funny, and very smart". That is one good dad!

The next is Willa Cather describing Antonia's eyes: "They were big and warm and full of light, like the sun shining on brown pools in the wood." I can picture them well.

Others?

From Bob Hales's posted link about Liberace v. Daily Mirror and William Connor, I found this description of Liberace:

quote:

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They say that this deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavored, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love has had the biggest reception and impact on London...

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Quite a descripiton!

Oh, my God, Morgan. That is a keeper!

Another from Willa Cather: "The blond cornfields were red gold, the haystacks turned rosy and threw long shadows. The whole prairie was like the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed. That hour always had the exultation of victory, of triumph ending, like a hero's death --heroes who died young and gloriously. It was a sudden transfiguration, a lifting-up of day."

Speaking of heroes, I neglected to say that the 9-year-old girl's description of her father, above, was the eulogy that she delivered at her father's funeral. He died while trying to stop a drug deal.

I always liked this bit of verse from Toby Keith's song "A Little Less Talk And A Lot More Action".

Well she was fighting them off
At a corner table
She had a longneck bottle
She was peeling the label
The look on her face
It was perfectly clear
She said somebody please
Get me out of here
The look she shot me
Through the glass refraction
Said a little less talk
And a lot more action

Written by Keith Hinton and Alan Stewart

That's fabulous, Harmony.

Last night on an ER episode a proper English doctor criticized an American physician for stating, "This is a male with....". The English physician said that Americans don't know how to use our language; male is an adjective, and the correct word was "man". In America we use "male" or "female" as nouns all the time. For example, in research we report sample sizes of males and females. You Brits out there--is that taboo in England?

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Originally posted by Kalleh:

You Brits out there--is that taboo in England?

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Not especially. My dictionary gives the noun meaning of male as 'a male person, animal or plant.'

With that said though, it isn't very common to speak of human beings as 'a male' or 'a female'. 'Man' and 'woman' would be much commoner terms.
It's more often heard when speaking of animals.
It isn't a matter of being grammatically wrong though, more a matter of style and choice. For example if you asked a mother what her baby was she would be very unlikely to answer
"Oh, it's a male."

si hoc legere scis nimium eruditiones habes

Read all about my travels around the world here.

To me, a resonant string of adjectives is Thomas Hobbes' conjecture of life in a state of nature, before the formation of any government: solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. I took a moment to look up the more complete passage:

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In such condition, there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of people, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

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Of course, you can sometimes go too far:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

--Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Digging up that quote reminded me of a wonderful site, The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Do take time to read the entries over the years, they're priceless!

quote:

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It was a dark and stormy night...

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OK, did anyone else get the immediate mental image of Snoopy sitting on his dog house banging away on his typewriter?

Arnie, that website was hilarious! And--you do bring up a very good point; one can get carried away.

Regarding the essence of the Columbia River:

"I do not know much about gods; but i think that the river
Is a strong brown god -- sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degee, at first recognized as a frontier;
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyer of commerce;
Then only a problem confronting the builders of bridges.
The problem, once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities -- ever, however, implacable,
Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder
Of what men chose to forget."

-T.S. Eliot

Of course, as mentioned in another thread, the US Declaration of Independence is supposed to be an awful piece of writing. It is riddled with adjectives and adverbs; signs of bad writing, according to Messrs Strunk and White.

k: Thank you for correct use of hyphens

quote:

When, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.

Talk about a lengthy first sentence! How would you re-write it to be more succinct?

"When you want to strike out on your own..."

One thing I have learned here is that there is no one way to write. While some like simple sentences, others don't. It is interesting to see what editors do to articles. In one article, my colleague (and boss) changed my "However," that started the sentence to "It, however, is...." The editor changed it back to my original sentence. My colleague was incensed! She said, "But I learned that a 'however' in the middle of a sentence has more of an effect than at the beginning!" I didn't care; I just wanted the article published. I really don't know how you can get so upset about something so trivial.

[However, secretly I snickered a little that they had changed it back to my original sentence. ]