Bob Pritchett

Phil Gons put me on to 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice, a delightfully-testy attack on Strunk & White's The Elements of Style.

So I won't be spending the month of April toasting 50 years of the overopinionated and underinformed little book... English syntax is a deep and interesting subject. It is much too important to be reduced to a bunch of trivial don't-do-this prescriptions by a pair of idiosyncratic bumblers who can't even tell when they've broken their own misbegotten rules.

Alas, The Elements march on unmolested. A testimony to the convenience of their form, the boldness of the assertions, and the continued strength of the brand.

In that spirit:

1. Throw away your Elements.
2. Purchase On Writing Well, by William Zinsser.

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 9:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

My grandfather worked for the Campbell Soup Company from 1946-1978. There were always lots of Campbell’s products around, and I drank a lot of V8.

Alas, I never got to try F-8, V-8’s fruity friend, and one of the projects my grandfather worked on. “This deliciously distinctive fruit drink is a blend of: water, sugar, naranjilla and cocona juices, concentrates of pineapple, apricot, apple, lemon and lime, banana puree, citric acid, guar gum and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).”

I don’t know if F-8 even made it to shelves, or how long it lived; I do know the concept lives on in V8 Splash and V8 V-Fusion.

An F-8 label was tacked to the boathouse ceiling at my grandparents’ summer home, and I always wanted one. My mother has the last one we could find, and I scanned it in so I could share it with other family members. And you.

Posted by Bob Pritchett at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)