A loyal MR visitor, J. Galt, asks:
I challenge you to write a blog post of decent length without the letter e
This woman might add: words of this woman don’t count, no spilling mistaiks aloud, and do it quickly, no agonizing with a dictionary.
This is not hard. An author from a Gallic land — I can’t say who — has a total book in this fashion, so a short blog post is snap. In Tanzania I find lots of corruption, lots of monopoly, lots of bargaining, but not much gross national product. Just think what will occur. (Tanzania is a cool word for my post; it is so good that I am not in a country of a dictator who runs Caracas.)
What about supply and purchasing? In my location — you can just call this city "Dar" — many Arabs add to urban culinary options. Spicy Sichuan food is also around, and Indian food is common. Why not? D falls downward to a rightward slant. Spicy food in Dar costs not so much. Transport of a spicy stuff or two costs virtually nothing. Call it proximity, or is "spatial" a good word too? "Marginal cost" also has not this bad sign, which again I must avoid in this blog post.
So, marginal cost is low for this spicy stuff. Now, S can fly rightwards in an upward slant, almost flat, but low low low.
I can put two flying slants synchronously. Right? Labor cost is low also. Monopoly is common in Dar but not for my mouth and stomach. P is jointly with marginal cost and for moi this spicy stuff is a Traum, of which I gnaw, swallow, chow, finish, grub down, polish off, run through, put away, and dispatch.
Now you try!
That is a task I will simply A-Void, thank you.
To match this gallant bit of work, avoid bad sign in sub-posts for this blog-post also.
TC, this post is full of ugly circumlocutions and it lacks flow and organization. I’m not claiming that I’m up to this task of writing a long, brilliant post in such conditions, but still: also has not this bad sign? What is that? And would you mind providing a bit of additional information about just what it is that you think will occur? Do you hold any insights into what Tanzania will turn into? To put it mildly, this is not your most inspiring or illuminating work.
Although it is a fact that Ms. Galt did not put a constraint on writing quality, only on writing quantity, so you could claim that that counts as your justification for this disappointing post. But I thought you had standards for your blogging that would not allow you to sink to that.
A classic application of this form is “Gadbsy”. If you know of a hard copy do get in touch. You can look at it:
http://www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby/
if spicy stuff has no transportation cost, why was dutch india company rich? monopoly?
Excellent — very well done indeed. (After reading those letters, methinks some Es dew please thee.)
Reminds me of Gilmore Girls, season five…
http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/gilmoregirls/
GUY #1: How about bland balking at political and social stands?
GUY #3: Ridiculous. Total stand-still for all in his vicinity. What do you
say?
GUY #4: I concur totally.
GUY #1: Crazy construct if you think for a bit.
GUY #2: Dubious logic if you ask this thoughtful guy.
RORY: Hello, everybody.
GUY #3: My God.
GUY #1: Shocking.
GUY #3: Silly girl. Not adjusting to this proud point of ours.
GUY #4: Sad, this diminishing vision.
RORY: Excuse me?
GUY #4: Faux pas count is six, I say?
GUY #3: Six, no doubt. Ay, again I concur.
GUY #4: Point in fact, daft lady, to catch on would prompt our
congratulations.
RORY: It’s a game?
GUY #3: At which you totally fail.
GUY #4: You want for instruction?
RORY: Apparently.
GUY #4: Said gap ‘twixt ‘d’ and ‘f’ shall not slip from lips in any word
this group allows.
RORY: Said gap ‘twixt ‘d’ and ‘f’ †¦ you’re not using the letter ‘e’?
GUY #4: Said this thing our group did banish.
GUY #1: Loud, for all to drink in!
GUY #3: Daft girl.
RORY: So, no one is supposed to say the letter ‘e’.
GUY #4: My God, this woman hounds us with this thing I banish.
GUY #3: Dumbfound.
They made us do this in English class in High School… boring.
Although spicy Tanzanian food is a good option for this kind of post, this brilliant GWU prof, alas, fails to accomplish Ms. Galt’s goal. Russian oil or stocks or bonds in China might look ok too for blogging. So might BBQ in Mississipi, or DC dining or a tax surplus or if sanctions can block Iranian mullahs from obtaining atom bombs. Posts on this Spring’s NBA playoffs (Warriors-Jazz, Bulls-Pistons, or Spurs-Suns) might look promising. But any changing of topics cannot truly work if you ask for a fully rigorous post lacking that which must not show up it to actually qualify. Why, you ask? It’s not a fiscal or culinary conundrum. It’s not a lack of skill with words.
It’s just that our blog host can’t do it as long as said host is signing his posts. Nor can his cohost, using his usual John Hancock (not just A. Tabarrok or Al Tabarrok). But I can, as long as you don’t count my URL or what you add automatically prior to “by” to our contributions.
Steve Martin employs this concept in his book “The Pleasure of My Company”, where the protagonist, affliceted with OCD, embarks on a trip outside his comfort zone. To overcome his normal phobias, he abstains from the letter e. Cleverly written, that.
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