LAST YEAR, I published an article titled “on william strunk and elements of style (and concise vigorous writing)” here on Neal Umphred Dot Com. It’s as boring as the title makes it sound—you’d have to give a damn about the most important figure and the most important book in the history of American writing on the inses and outses of writing readably!
In the piece, I posted an image of the 1919 edition of Strunk’s The Elements Of Style and noted that I had found it on Jerry Morris’s My Sentimental Library site. Jerry’s site was one of the few that had decent photographs of these rare books on the Internet.
Last week I received a message from Mr. Morris that he had received several new subscribers who he was able to trace back to my post above. I was pleased to know that my readers were actually taking my advice and visiting recommended websites for further edification.
This is a screenshot of the top portion of Biblio-Connecting. It’s interesting to note that the Florida Bibliophile Society is presenting something to do with my home state of Pennsylvania.
This is a screenshot of part of the bottom portion of Biblio-Connecting where I am named blogadamonth. As Mr Morris took this screenshot of my site last week, he has the ‘old’ look of Neal Umphred Dot Com, not the hip now and agogo ‘new’ look that graces this site’s home page as you read these words!
Jerry also informed me that he had picked Neal Umphred Dot Com as the Blog of the Month on his Biblio-Connection site. Except for John Ross’s The Round Place In The Middle site—but John and I have a mutual admiration thing happening so it’s not the same—this is the first time any of my work has received such attention from another blogger!
So if you do give a damn about grammar and punctuation in the English language and the beating(s) it has taken at the hands of torturous texters, bloviating bloggers, and other sadistic sages (including journalists for ‘name’ websites who haven’t read The Elements Of Style), then click on over to Jerry’s sites and subscribe.
And tell him Neal sent ya . . .
FEATURED IMAGE: The lovely image at the top of this page is of the Nieuport 17, the most famous fighter plane associated with the French Army in World War I. As I could not think of an appropriate image for this particular article, I thought of my friend Tom Grigsby, whose home project is to build one of these babies from a kit in his garage!
I found this painting on the Italeri model airplane website, although the artist is not credited. “The French biplane fighter Nieuport 17 was directly derived from its predecessor, the Nieuport 11, and it adopted several improvements, such as the bigger wings and the most powerful engine, to enhance its aerodynamic and its performance. The first versions were still equipped with the Lewis 7.7 mm machine gun mounted on the upper wing.
The Lewis gun was replaced, in the French Aèronatique Militaire fighters, with a more modern synchronized 7,7 mm Vickers machine gun firing through the propeller disc. The Nieuport 17 was used on the western front from the middle of 1916 and it significantly contributed to counterbalance the air superiority of the German fighters.”
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
Congratulations! You oughta be somebody’s blog of the month!
Just curious, but if your friend builds the plane will you fly in it? Or has he already built it?
NDJ
Thanks!
He has ordered the parts, which he has to assemble in his garage. Fuselage and tail assembly first (I think.)
I don’t know if I have any balls left for a flight in a home-built airplane. I’ve used a lot of them up in my time . . .
PS: Modern Themes gave into my constant nagging and released an upgrade to the lovely Readit theme I use: I now have a HUGE featured image on my home page. Check it out.
NU
AGAIN! You are “Double Dipped”! And, I’m very impressed.
Side bar: I don’t think that either the 11 or the 17 had the room or the power for a passenger. So, don’t get your nethers sweaty!
“Double Dipped”?
Passenger? I wanna fly the booger!
My testosterone gone bye-bye and my nethers rarely work up a sweat—even for Nicole Kidman and Marisa Tomei . . .