@athelstone
Active 19 hours, 21 minutes ago-
Athelstone replied to the topic Microfiction published in the forum Coffee Shop 6 days, 23 hours ago
Fine writing. Compact and perfect!
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 2 weeks, 6 days ago
The trouble is, it’s easy to get used to odd phrasing or vocabulary when I’ve produced it myself.
There’s definitely something in that. It’s a similar issue to writing something which doesn’t make sense on its own because you know all the back story that your audience is missing. You know what a turn of phrase means and it’s something of a sur…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 3 weeks ago
Re the bee in your bonnet. My comments about commas were not directed at you. Commas are wonderfully useful and under-used.
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 3 weeks ago
No, I don’t worry too much about rules. Most of the rules are inventions of over-educated elites designed to reinforce the idea that how the aristocracy spoke and wrote was the correct way*. That’s how we end up with such nonsense as split-infinitives and pointless debates about whether there should be a comma prior to and in a list. Seeing as…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 3 weeks, 1 day ago
Crossed with your reply Kate.
Yes! It is creepy. I have been discussing it offline with another member of the circle. We thought that ‘against her hair’ was perhaps one of the worst possible adjectival phrases.
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Athelstone replied to the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 3 weeks, 1 day ago
I did think of a comma and I agree that it helps. What still interests me is whether the construction actually breaches any commonly agreed grammatical rules.
I take your point about common speech tags being transitive, although several are actually ambitransitive e.g.
It was necessary to answer. John answered.
I agree that ‘against’ is a poor…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic It sounds wrong. But is that enough? in the forum Blogs 3 weeks, 2 days ago
There are oddities in the English language that are never expressly taught. I have in mind things such as the order of adjectives, by which I mean that a native speaker will (usually) prefer my big, green, timber, house to the alternative my timber, green, big, house. There are rules, or what purport to be rules, derived from how native speakers…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition – April 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 weeks, 2 days ago
Super story @seagreen. Positively inspired and a worthy winner.
Thanks for the comp @knickylaurelle. I enjoyed it in spite of it bringing back a few awful memories.
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Athelstone replied to the topic I Remember in the forum Blogs 3 weeks, 6 days ago
I went to his funeral a few weeks back. Still a bit raw for everybody but I’m glad I went. He came from a BIG family with ten brothers and two sisters and it was very interesting to meet some of them. Did have one amusing incident. I spoke with the wife of the eldest brother who told me that she always found the brothers, including her husband, ‘a…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 1 month ago
Not sure how the spare apostrophe sneaked in there, but ‘Hey ho.’
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly Competition – April 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 month ago
That Conversation
‘Frank want’s the self-appraisals by Wednesday, remember.’
Colin’s words cut through my frantic attempts to pull the KPI figures together. No, I did not remember. I did not remember Wednesday figuring in any of the discussions.
‘But nobody has even started because we were told not to. The training doesn’t begin until Thurs…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 1 month, 2 weeks ago
OK, tiny announcement. I’ve moved the chat feature onto the sidebar. Actually, since it defaults to being in-view, it actually sits down in the bottom right corner. Don’t panic if it opens up and covers the window you want to look at. The minus (-) button will minimise it back into the corner. The plus (+) will open it again. Opinions? OK, horrible?
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 1 month, 3 weeks ago
I’m not responsible for what inspires me 🙂
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly comp – March 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Oh my, how to decide between four super entries?
Seagreen: poetic, inspirational.
Sandra: a slice out of a life that seems to be true.
Kate: warm to the max.
Knicks: beautifully wrought and fiercely hopeful.
I read these last night and thought “Blah! I’ll look again tomorrow when it’ll be easier”. It isn’t. I really could pick any one of…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 1 month, 4 weeks ago
Well, our fridge freezer passed away at the weekend, probably at some point on Friday evening so we didn’t notice until Saturday afternoon, by which point about £100 worth of frozen food was spoiled. Our neighbour over the road who used to repair kitchen appliances said it would cost almost as much to repair as to buy a new one. So that’s firmed…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly comp – March 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 months ago
The March comp has two super entries and, maybe, another on the way? With a whisker under a week to go, and a word limit as low as 1 (2 would be better) and as high as 500 there’s tons of time to rattle of an entry. And all it needs is a happy ending. Yippee! Look there’s a one-word-entry with a happy ending. You can’t have that one though.
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 2 months, 1 week ago
Yeah, he was three years younger than me, too. And yes, it does make you think.
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 2 months, 1 week ago
Yes, I hasten to point out that I was trying the “buy” button (unsuccessfully) not because I’d decided to buy, but to see whether there were any choices to make. Looks like you buy a ticket then choose what you want to do.
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