In On Writing the inestimable Stephen King relates a story of James Joyce. Here a friend finds Joyce sprawled across his desk in utter despair about "the work." When the friend asks how many words Joyce got that day, James replies, "Seven."
"Seven?" says the friend. "But James . . . that's good, at least for you!"
"Yes," Joyce said, finally looking up. "I suppose it is . . . but I don't know what order they go in!"
Well, I usually get more than seven at a time, but the other day I just got three. And that's when the fun began. The words were, "donuts," "no," and "more." Also, with the words, I didn't get any punctuation. So I'm at even more at a loss. Let's say we put them in one order, but then try and insert punctuation and see what we get.
- "No more donuts."
- "No more... donuts?"
- "No, more donuts!"
Now, that's just adding punctuation, and we get three distinctly different sentences which go with completely different stories (or parts of stories).
Next we can adjust the order.
- "Donuts no more."
- "More donuts, no?"
- "More, 'No donuts.'"
I can see I'm going to need a bigger eraser.
9 comments:
No! More donuts!
I'd prefer more scones if its all the same to you.
Well, we could always use more donuts, Todd. As long as their good donuts. Bad donuts, we don't need any more of.
Nathan, hey, if they float your boat, have at. As for me, good bagels and a nice cream cheese (yes, I used to be a purist about my philly cream cheese, but after sampling Einsteins Garden Herb Blend on a warm onion bagel, I'm learning to accept other ideas).
Not a cream cheese fan myself, but I am, as we speak eating a buttered, toasted 'everything' bagel with lox, tomato, red onions and capers.
Sheer decadence.
Nathan, I could agree with everything there, except the lox. Can't abide it. But tomato, red onion and capers, yum yum.
I agree with Todd. As a geek, the sentence should always be "No! More doughnuts!"
Because doughnuts are what we sacrifice to the computer gods to make them happy.
Michelle, obviously that was what I forgot to do today, as the Computer Gods were very full of smite this very day. It was their wish to vent such extra smite upon me.
Unfortunately it'll be until Thursday before such honey-glazed or powdered sugar offerings are made again (one must have one's day of atonement and sacrament).
Computers know when you're dissing them.
They sense fear, and like dogs, when they sense fear, they attack.
This is why we must keep them placated with doughnuts.
No more, Donuts!
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