Source: SpYurbanart
Why Blah, Blah, Blah, when one Blah will do?
Source: SpYurbanart
Not to say that Ernest Hemingway was blahing away when he used six words to tell his story..."For sale: baby shoes, never worn," but sometimes less is more, which is humorously pointed out by Brandon Specktor in the following article titled: "The Power of a Single Word," found in this month's "Genius Issue" of the Reader's Digest.
"One needn't be a blabber-mouth to get a point across. When a Macedonian general threatened to attack Sparta in the fourth century BC, he warned the Spartan generals, "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army on your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city." The Spartans replied with one word: "If."
Source: Kiwi-english.net
Whoa! The Macedonians suddenly remembered they had to wash their hair that day and never attacked.
Similarly, in 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, German troops surrounded Americans at Bastogne and ordered them to surrender or face being wiped out. Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe sent back this pithy reply: "Nuts!"
And, no, he wasn't requesting snacks for his troops. Today, we'd use something a little spicier and almost as short, but the point got across and the Americans eventually fought their way out.
Another benefit of brevity? It saves you on telegram fees. French author Victor Hugo understood this in 1862 when asking his publishers how sales of his new book, Les Misérables, were going. Too low on francs to send a lengthy message, he instead telegraphed a single question mark. (?)
Having sold all 7,000 copies of the book's first printing in less than 24 hours, Hugo's publishers responded in kind... with a single exclamation point. (!)
Source: Phoneky
Sometimes even masters of brevity need to employ a second word to make their point. Take America's 30th president, Calvin Coolidge... a man so tight lipped that his friends nicknamed him Silent Cal. A popular story told by his wife, Grace, recalls Cal sitting next to a young woman at a Capitol Hill dinner party. The woman turned to Cal and said, "I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you."
His reply? "You lose."'
Nobody likes losing, especially unfairly, which is what happened to me recently while attempting to play Wordle: the trendy 5-letter word game with a daily one-word answer.
I say unfairly, because I wasn't out of guesses, but was penalized for starting a game and failing (through forgetfulness) to complete the game by the end of the day, which cost me my 100% winning streak, which then had me: IRKED, VEXED, and IRATE! Yes... three excellent, 5-lettered words, any of which, could be the next Wordle answer.
Source: GameRevolution
UGH! Enough about Wordle.
Here's something others found irksome, but I think you might find amusing.
NYTimes: Metropolitan Diary, July 24, 2022
"Phones Off"
Dear Diary:
As an original subscriber to City Center's Encores! series, I was thrilled to attend the eagerly anticipated reopening after a two-year hiatus.
Subscribers generally know all the audience members who sit near them, so there's a bit of a buzz when someone new appears. And at a February performance of "The Tap Dance Kid," everyone in my row noticed a new face in the row in front of us. As the standard announcement was made about the rules against taking photographs and videos and using phones, this woman took out her phone and appeared to start texting.
The orchestra began to play and the audience applauded. The light from the phone was still visible. I was about to tap her on her shoulder and ask her to turn off the phone, when the person beside her turned to her.
"Please turn that phone off," he said.
"And by the way," he added. "You're way off track. The Wordle is 'pleat.'''
—Dennis Buonagura
Ha! And you thought I was done with Wordle.
One last bit... on Tuesday, August 30, 2022, for only the 2nd time in 150 games played, I solved Wordle in just two guesses!
Okay, that's two words, but... only one expression :)
If interested:
Learn about the One Word movement to help improve your life here.
Then scroll down to take a quiz to find one word that's best for you here.
Watch Jimmy Fallon play Wordle here.
Listen to Strother Gaines, a one word storyteller here.
And for writers looking to spark those creative juices, try One Word, where upon hitting 'Go' you'll have 60 seconds to write whatever pops into your head after a random word appears on your screen here.
Until Next We Meet
at
"Here and Next"
XOX... Dyan
