I could get a job of work, or I could step into a saloon I’d been running Red, my big sorrel gelding, for I don’t know how long, glancing over my shoulder every minute, expecting to see somebody. I glanced again and didn’t see nobody. So, I slowed Red to…

An old baker looks at his life and tries to find some value in it Theophilus Jones leaned forward, peered into an oven in his bakery, and saw a loaf of bread. “A minute more,” he said. He closed the oven and straightened, then grimaced and grabbed his back. …

Why does anyone speak and write in terms of something else? — In Modern American Usage, Wilson Follett says that the construction “in terms of” has become extremely popular: “The rage for expressing everything in terms of something else is a disease traceable to college-catalogue English. From 1900 on a college course was hardly respectable if it did not offer to present…

An approach to education — Years ago, in a class called the psychology of education, the professor talked about developing our brains, then asked us students: “What is your image of the brain? A muscle? A bucket? Or a sponge?” One of my classmates asked, “What difference does it make?” “If you see your brain…

Is anyone . . . for anything? — When a movie star, a politician, or some other public person gets caught doing something wrong, he will often say, “I take full responsibility for my actions.” Then he will offer an explanation, which will include a number of extenuating circumstances. …

It is ALWAYS intended —

Be careful when you crossbreed the parts of speech — As Rudolf Flesch says in The ABC of Style, “The English language lets you make any noun into an adjective — as in kitchen cabinet,” in which the noun kitchen functions as an adjective modifying the noun cabinet. Nouns that have been made into adjectives are called “attributive nouns,” and…

An old auto mechanic offers a young man a great deal on a new battery — In front of the Sea Esta, a luxurious beachfront motel in an exclusive resort community, Evan Ritchie, a well-dressed young man, stood beside the raised hood of a smoothly running BMW. …

A good question — Nowadays, we don’t hear much about God unless we attend religious services, watch religious programs on television, or listen to them on the radio. We live in secular times, and if we talk about otherworldly matters, we tend to avoid referring to God, calling ourselves spiritual, not religious. …