Wednesday, May 12, 2004

(proclamation) summer without should

Apropos of nothing in particular, the management here at JFW has decided that the word should is dramatically overrated. Other than those used in this post, we can't think of any sentence that has the word should in it that cannot be more pleasingly worded without it. As such, and now that summer is here, we have decided unilaterally to declare this to be JFW's "summer without should." We are going to try to forgo my use of the word this summer when talking to others (we will slip-up, of course, but we will try to minimize the number of times we do so).* When called to our attention, we will eradicate any occurrence of it during posts from this summer on the weblog. We will try not to use it in our internal dialogues, where its repetition can be particularly unpleasant and unproductive. And, at least for known or suspected readers of this weblog, we hereby announce that we will not this summer be acknowledging sentences that include the word should, except perhaps to note the official JFW policy on the matter.

Yes, we are serious about this. Starting now, ending at the end of the summer.

We recognize that this is a demanding request, as it lays a heavy burden of coming up with alternative sentence constructions on your should-ers. However, we greatly appreciate your cooperation.

* For a limited time, the proprietor of JFW will be giving a quarter (25 cents) for any instance where someone aware of this offer catches him using "should" in either in-person, telephone, or e-mail interaction. For spoken interactions, the instance of "should" must be caught and noted within thirty seconds. Attempts to entrap the proprietor into using "should" can result in the prize not being awarded, depending on the proprietor's mood.

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