short takes

[cellio]

You know you're among geeks when questions like "but really, what is the true nature of a book?" make perfect sense. (A group of mostly tech writers and moi, discussing the partitioning of a doc set into DocBook-sanctioned units like sets, books, parts, and chapters.)

Quote of the day: ...And adjectives, like gang members, seldom ventured out alone. They went out in twos and threes, and God help us, fours, and piled up on any person, place or thing that got in their way. "Look! It's a noun -- let's get it!" -- Robert Masello, quoted by mabfan here. This is one in a series of excellent posts on rules of writing fiction.

Rabbi Micha Berger posted an article about types of halachic rulings that I found useful.

Comments

[cellio]

One of my favorite language-related quotes, for which I lack attribution, is: "English doesn't borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar."

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

According to bronx_baroness that quote (or some variation thereof) is attributable to James D. Nicoll. It's a great quote, innit?

[cellio]

Thank you! It sounded to me like the sort of thing Heather Rose Jones would say, but I was pretty sure I hadn't actually gotten it from her.