Good advice for most projects

The original copyright for my Singer Sewing Book is 1953. It has similar pithy words of wisdom.

• "The psychiatrists say that ugly dresses have caused more complexes than have "prettier sisters" or "scolding mothers." Every child has the right to becoming, yes, pretty, clothes." p. 165 [What would we do without the advice of psychiatrists?]
• "There is real advantage in teaching children to sew--boys and girls. No matter what they do with their hands later, whether they become artists or sculptors or electricians or radio or television repairmen--technicians of any kind--if the muscles of the fingers and the hands are trained to sew, this training can be beneficial." p. 166 [Now we have video games for eye-hand coordination.]
• "Boys require only slightly less fabric than girls." p. 164 [Even in the days of poodle skirts?]
• "When sewing for children, study color in relation to their skin color, eyes and hair." p. 163 [Years before Color me Beautiful!]
• "Use both hands when you sew." p. 153 [I'd never thought of doing it any other way, did you?]
• "Look your prettiest for this try-on [basted garment]. A dress in its fitting stage is no doubt passing through its one ugly hour." p. 50
• "An itinerant tailor, Ebenezer Butterick, through the urging of his wife, Ellen, was the first to make patterns available in the United States to women who sew. He made patterns and rented them to customers. . ." p. 35 [Behind every good man . . .]
• "There is no reason for anyone's not making a beautiful seam, because it takes so little time to learn to stitch straight and to "power" evenly." p. 5 [Is that possessive pronoun necessary in this sentence?]

Excess verbiage

Because verbiage is by definition an excess of words, the phrases excess verbiage and excessive verbiage are redundant.  Notice this example from a writing guide at George Mason University, and also the examples provided. All too wordy and pretentious.

Excess verbiage
Effective writing requires elimination of excess verbiage. The value of concise writing is stated in quotes below from some noted authors.
‘The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.’ Hans Hoffman
‘Often I think writing is sheer paring away of oneself leaving always something thinner, barer, more meager.’ F. Scott Fitzgerald
‘I believe more in the scissors that I do in the pencil.’ Truman Capote
One technique for eliminating excess verbiage is to scrutinize a wordy passage, underline those phrases that contain hard information, and then rewrite the passage using only the underlined portions.

On a personal note

This book, "On a personal note, a guide to writing notes with style" is my newest book, [cross referenced at my book blog] having received it for my recent birthday along with lots of note cards. I was told it has many good tips, and it does--most of which I already know. But it's a great review. Books on how to write letters and notes are a genre that go back a few centuries. What note and letter guides don't tell you is the effort that goes into it. Even for someone who writes as much as I do, I sometimes get discouraged by the task.

Here's how mine goes. First, I look through the list of names on my family list--siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, my own children, to jog my memory if I need to write something--encouragement for that elusive job, a wedding anniversary, a thank you note for a special favor, or a get well/thinking of you card. Since paper address books just don't do it anymore (although I still have my mother's, grandmother's and some old ones of mine), I usually have to go to my computer database and check the Christmas label list. Then I get out the last several issues of the church newsletter--hospitalizations, moved to care facility, baptisms, deaths, etc. Then I check off the people I know, and get out the directory for the people I don't know, or can't quite remember the face. The picture directory isn't as up to-date as the printed directory, so both have to be used. Then I get out the bound day-by-day calendar book (no year) in which I record who got a note and why on what date (I write in the year). This needs to be reviewed from time to time, because if a church member I don't know well comes up to me 2 months later and thanks me for the card, I don't want to say, "Who me?"

We were out of town for 10 weeks this summer, so yesterday I covered up the kitchen table and counter top with all my accoutrements, and wrote 25 notes and cards, using my new gifts. I'm not done yet, but I ran out of stamps. So many people use e-mail these days, that a regular U.S. mail piece is a real treat--at least it is for me. It's especially so for people who are residing in assisted care or a nursing home. Even if they no longer remember who you are by name, they can enjoy a pretty card. There's one family in church I don't know but have been sending notes for several years about their daughter who was in a terrible auto accident caused by a drunk driver. Many people must be writing to them, or calling, because I've received occasional updates on her condition. One man I never expected would leave the hospital is home and in remission. My friend Lynne crafts lovely cards and she has helped me out with special "guy type" cards which are a little difficult to find.

If you're on one of my lists, you'll probably be getting a note on my new birthday stationery soon. The handwriting isn't what it used to be, so I hope you can read it.

It is not the correct thing

are little items that comes from my grandmother's book, The Correct Thing in Good Society, by Florence Howe Hall, c1902 (daughter of Julia Ward Howe). These guide and manner books were very popular in the 19th and 20th century, with about 5 or 6 new ones published each year. Writing and etiquette guides are still popular today, particularly as people struggle with new technology. Some of this advice holds up in cyberspace, the mall, the airplane or the office. The page on the left had the correct thing, the one on the right, the incorrect. It is not the correct thing

to be quick to take offence where one is not recognized, since elderly, near-sighted or absent minded people often fail to observe those whom they meet

to carry bandboxes, bird-cages, newspaper bundles, growing plants, or more than one basket or numerous package of any sort when travelling

for young ladies to enter into conversation with or accept favors from strangers, especially if these by young men

to tread on other people's feet or deposit baskets or bundles on them

to be untidy and careless, as if one were a royal personage on whom domestics would never tire of waiting

to look down upon your parents, because they know less Latin and Greek than you or are ignorant of modern science, forgetting that they stand high in a school on the threshold of which you have set your foot--the school of life

for the women, when newly admitted to a male institution, to ask for unnecessary innovations or to interfere with time-honored customs

for employees to talk to each other while customers are awaiting their attention

to let the door of a shop slam in the face of another person

to buy very cheap goods presumably made up in sweat shops, thus endangering one's own health or even life, as well as helping to perpetuate a cruel system of human slavery