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Brief Prose " Cliches are the opium of the masses." — Marx |
| No pain, no game. |
| If you can say lots of meaningful stuff quickly in really short words,
then you can get a lot more punch to it. — William Shakespeare Brevity is the soul of wit. — Ben Zedek Brevity is ... wit. — The Simpsons |
| A Tale of Three Cards and Two Stones I laid out my cards to show, five hundred pretty and plain. My young friend was pleased by any and wanted each he saw. He asked and got two hundred plain. His greed could count but couldn't count beauty, so he left with glee. His cousin joined the choosing game and picked a hundred plain and pretty, happy with half, whose half were pretty. At last his gentle sister came and saw the cards remaining. Three caught her fancy with graceful animals and flowers. Whether she thought not or dared not, she did not ask for them. But I, intent to do her good, pressed them on her, which she with grateful, bashful smile took. When I parted late that day, but one of three to me approached and gave her thanks — O thanks more dear than three pretty cards! Twenty stones there were in all, smooth and bright, of every hue. I bid her pick her favorite few. She pondered then drew out two — the smallest, dullest two — and said to me she'd leave for me the rest — the best of all. I knelt beside the stones amazed for that her generosity in recieving was greater than the giver's. — Of events years and months ago. [July 7, 2003] |
God made all of nothing, one of something, another from one, and many from two, and one of many. — Riddle you [December 31, 2005] |