After hours of dilligent work by yours truly, I've succeeded in uncovering (read: Aaron gave me) the original Indesign template for the LifeTips book series. This means that we should be getting back on track with putting out the backlog of books we've accumulated. I'm not sure whether that will be enough to pull the US economy out of what my last editor used to call the "pre-cession," but it sure made my week.

I'd bring out another rant against one of the many grammatical abuses that make me want to burn down the internet if I wasn't forced to acknowledge that there's someone who in his nitpicking, hypocritical passive-aggression has even me beat. In his essay "Politics and the English Language" George Orwell lashed out about the people who were hurting the written word. His main points were:

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

There's a sixth rule too, but if you haven't read the rest of the essay you shouldn't be trusted with it. I'm also declaring a moratorium on the words "experience," "encounter" and "then." Have a good week!