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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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February 24, 2004

LATE BREAKING NEWS

If you live in LA there's going to be a protest this evening against Bush's proposed same-sex amendment. I'm sick in bed or you can bet Dr. Wife and I would be there.

LOS ANGELES WHEN: Tuesday, February 24, 7 p.m. (gather at 6:30 p.m. for press conference) WHERE: Corner of Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards, West Hollywood (In case of rain, rally held inside West Hollywood Auditorium inside west Hollywood Park, just south of Santa Monica Blvd., on San Vicente) For more information about the rally, call (323) 860-5858. SPONSORED BY: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center; City of West Hollywood; National Black AIDS Institute; Metropolitan Community Church; Bienestar; Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund

Posted by TEV at 06:18 PM |

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