OLD DOG FROM SILENT GEN. LEARNS NEW TRICKS

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Jefferson wrote "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do." Why argue with the man who wrote America's "Declaration of Independence"? Yesterday, I wrote a sentence that ended with "an old building that once upon a time housed the famous Powell's Bookstore." How many times, I wondered, had I written "once upon a time" when "once" accounted very well for the longer phrase? I can't imagine how far along I'd be if I hadn't first had to deal with alcoholism and woman issues before I got down to serious attempts at successful writing. I can't fret about my wasted years and lack of confidence or I'll have regret to deal with next. One does what one can and at whatever pace he discovers he can do it at.

On the far northeast section of my daily walk, I sometimes enter a neighborhood of expensive homes, and I imagine living there one day ... if, of course, I can write one successful book that becomes a movie. I think I'm writing that book now, and walking through that neighborhood always fires my imagination. Who knows? More unlikely things have happened. Once that sentence would have read "More unlikely things have been known to happen"? See what I mean? I can now instruct Jefferson too: "The most valuable talent is never using two words when one will do." The superlative "most" eliminated the need for "of all" in Jefferson's maxim. Of course, history reveals that the pronoun "that" would have been required in Jefferson's time to refer to "valuable" and that historical circumstance is why Jefferson constructed his sentence as he did.