From a page one story, “Inside Trump’s anger and impatience—and his sudden decision to fire Comey,” in today’s Washington Post:
his trusted confidant
a breathtaking move
a prime mover
the private accounts
a conflicting narrative
brewing personal animus
to candidly discuss
his baseless claim
more aggressively pursue
grew increasingly dissatisfied
has left raw anger
deeply distrusted Comey
the ferocious reaction
the friendly confines
Jack, what means “block” in this context?
I will say that these adjectives and adverbs remind me of Jack Anderson, of (somewhat) blessed memory. (I just finished Mark Feldstein’s POISONING THE PRESS, so Anderson is on my mind.)
Richard, I used block to mean stop it.
It was a play on a long-running New Yorker space-filler called “Block That Metaphor.” An example they once used:
“The coattails of a successful favorite son can serve as a ladder to lift all life with access into the perfumed White House atmosphere of perks and power.”
In good narrative stories, as this Washington Post piece was, writers often are tempted to use adjectives and adverbs to try to make things seem more dramatic. As an editor, that kind of writing always set off my b.s. detector.
Thank you. Got it.
From a book on political leadership some 35 years ago: Charisma is the wildcard that reorders the values contained in the deck of extant historical determinants.