Joan Baez at Stern Grove, July 12, 2009

Another beautiful day at Stern Grove.

Hello, Senator!

Senator Al Franken.

Because's he's good enough, he's smart enough, and doggone it, people like him.

Who needs rhetorical questions?

This cracked me up:

How to Write Good

Always avoid alliteration.

Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

Avoid clichés like the plague -- they're old hat.

Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

Parenthentical words however must be enclosed in commas.

It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

Contractions aren't necessary.

Do not use a foreign word when there is an adequate English quid pro quo.

One should never generalize.

Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

Comparisons are as bad as clichés.

Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

One word sentences? Eliminate. Always!

Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

The passive voice should not be used.

Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixed metaphors -- even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

Who needs rhetorical questions?

Don't use commas, that, are not, necessary.

Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.

Never use a big word where a diminutive alternative would suffice.

Subject and verb always has to agree.

Be more or less specific.

Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.

Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispelling and to catch typograhpical errers.

Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.

Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.

Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.

Eschew obfuscation.

No sentence fragments.

A writer must not shift your point of view.

Don't overuse exclamation marks!!!

If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.

Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.

And always be sure to finish what

From the DS forum, attributed to Frank Visco and William Safire

Robert Flack at Stern Grove yesterday

Beautiful day, and I had a major nostalgia attack!

There's no video of yesterday's concert available, but here's Roberta Flack singing "Killing Me Softly With His Song" in a 1988 concert:

Editing to add -- now there is video!



Here's one shot from behind the trees:

Multiple online personalities

I'm continuing to consolidate more of my online writing under the name "Ms Terri" as part of an attempt to bring my multiple online personalities together in a big group hug (ha!):

Multiple personalities
do not always work and play well
with each other

(I love this photo, which I found on Flickr, by mnd.ctrl. Creative Commons license)

Botancal Gardens -- we won!

Got this email:

Dear Friends:

After a long and very lively conversation regarding fees for the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park, we will be recommending that NO fee be charged for this special natural space. Instead, we will be instituting a "suggested fee" schedule and are looking to bring in a vendor to offer food and beverages.

We thank you for your input and look forward to working with you on our shared goal of keeping the Botanical Garden beautiful for present and future generations.


Thank you,

Jared Blumenfeld
General Manager
San Francisco Recreation and Park Department

Woo hoo!

Purple flowers in late afternoon sun, near the 9th Avenue entrance of the Botanical Gardens (Arboretum). Photo by me, June 2008.

Demand Studios and Mahalo update

The beating-procrastination method on the Metafilter thread I mentioned earlier did help! I got a couple of Demand Studios articles written since then. For some people that would be nothing -- there are people who can write ten DS articles a day. But for me, it's good, as I have gone weeks at a time without writing any at all. Next step is to see if I can ramp it up a bit more.

After my initial fascination, I'm no longer sure about Mahalo. It's starting to seem buggy and confusing. The good thing, though, is some people there seem really earnest about building a useful, high-quality site. I don't know yet if there is much money to be made, though I did make my first 50 cents for getting two answers voted "best answer."