Re: Two real, honest-to-goodness Xy questions

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Caballero wrote:
> > How about -
> > There, all is nothing but order and beauty
>
> Better: simply omit "nothing." --Carlo Caballero
Ah, but Carlo, how many people under--what? 40? 50? 60?--would be
able to understand that construction? That was what I thought of
at first. But "all is but order..." will be unintelligible to
nine out of ten readers. Nobody reads anything written before he
or she was born. Its not just "big words" (I can't use
"exacerbate" in my council reports); it's any construction that
they haven't seen in People or their daily newspaper or heard on
the TV.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx