Dear Reader:

Why do so many people want to pick on one of my all-time favorite words….very? I remember my senior high school English teacher handing me back the first draft of my first attempt at a term paper….with lines drawn through every “very” on the page. How “very” rude!

I am sorry but I simply can’t help myself. I am a “very” expressive person when I use “very” to describe my adventures through life…both very happy and/or very sad. Life seems kinda blah to me without a “very” in it.

Apparently Mark Twain (supposedly) once said:

“Substitute ‘damn’ every time (sic) you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
— John Willard, English Usage, 2017

Come on now Mark…what’s the problem with a good dessert with a “very” on top?

Apparently language critics gave poor President Woodrow Wilson a hard time for using “very” too many times in his speeches. One critic said that the over-use of “very” is a feminine trait and alluded to the fact that Woodrow Wilson had been around his wife and three daughters too long and that “very” side of him was rubbing off  by his association from living in a”fortress of femininity.”  (How very insensitive!)

I think Wilson should have replied to his distracters with this bit of scripture.

John 14:12-14

12:  “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth in me, the works that I do, shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my father.”

Jesus  made another adverb out of an adverb…with very and verily. How very cool is that?

I couldn’t help but laugh at the humorous tongue-in-cheek summary of the article by Merriam-Webster (“The Problems with Very” or “Other People’s Problems with Very“)

“...So let’s have a quick recap on the matter of very. You may use very before a past participle, unless it sounds bad, in which case you should not use it. You may use very as an intensifier before adjectives such as angry, unless you use it too much, in which case you should use it less. And in the matter of rhetorical proclivities you should use very whenever you feel like it.”

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So until tomorrow “Oh…how I love having fun with words. Can you imagine living in a world without them…it would be a pretty lonely world…in fact a VERY lonely world.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Honey forwarded this insightful message she received from an email from a friend…I wanted to share it with all of you.

Six Little Stories

1. One day, all the villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella.