Lake Superior State University publishes an annual list of “Banished Words.” The Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, school doesn’t really want to ban words. It wants to curb cliché. Clutter is the greatest enemy to clarity in language use. I support any effort to stamp out cliché. Having people saying all the same phrases all theContinue reading “Circling back to Lake Superior State University’s ‘banished words’ list, at the end of the day, it makes the new normal tolerable”
Category Archives: Winterset
My two dads: Double blessings on #FathersDay
I suppose you could say I had three fathers. There was a man who donated his portion of the potion that makes a baby to my biological mother, who in turn gave me up for adoption at birth. I have no idea who that man is. It’s a mystery I never tried to solve. IContinue reading “My two dads: Double blessings on #FathersDay”
How I pissed off a bunch of my old friends by writing about racism in the small Iowa town I grew up in
I pissed off a lot of people — old friends from Winterset, mostly — the last time I wrote in this space. I’ve been stuck as to what to say since. The intent was not to upset people or settle 30-year-old grudges. There was a time in my life when I would have enjoyed that,Continue reading “How I pissed off a bunch of my old friends by writing about racism in the small Iowa town I grew up in”
The Paragraph Stacker 