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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 95
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 95 |
what seemed to me to be a genuinely stupid, clumsy bit of writing that gave the appearance of being self-contradictory
Dear sjmaxq, it is a given that the best advertising copy is copy which people notice and which people remember. If the copy generates light-hearted discussion [eg. is it good grammar, bad grammar?], that is a huge bonus.
Measured by these standards, the sample you brought before us, "one small but immense improvement", is neither "stupid" nor "clumsy" but, instead, clever, provocative and wildly successful.
Forever after, all of us will remember the phrase "small but immense improvement" and we will simultaneously connect it with office furniture. You have paid the author of the ad the highest compliment available. Whether or not you like the ad yourself is quite beside the point.
The only thing you didn't do is name the manufacturer of the office suite.
You have certainly piqued my curiosity. Where can I buy this furniture? [I have a small room where I am dying to make an immense statement.]
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
What max actually wrote was:- In reply to:
From a review of an Office suite:
"One small but immense improvement from version 1.0 is . . ."
(to save you going back to the top)
Knowing his precise turn of mind, I think it is unlikely that he has allowed any typo's to creep in to this quote, therefore the capitalization of "Office" is not a mistake, and the term, "suite," in conjunction with the phrase, "version 1.0" leads me to deduce that this is not an office suite on which you might sit or recline, despite (and because of) the implication that the wares are soft.
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
Thanks, Rhub. You're right, of course. It is a suite of software with "Office" in the title. Also, to vbq, and any who think I was annoyed by advertising hype - I said in my very first post "from a review". It was not advertising copy, it was part of a two page review of the software. As it happens, the software in question is both Open Source and freeware, so there really was no element of "advertising" in the commercial sense. I think that if I had meant "advertising" there is a good chance that I would have said "advertising."
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I was not one of the "y'all"
If the shoe doesn't fit…
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
If the shoe doesn't fit…
sounds like a lame excuse, to me.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>I said in my very first post "from a review".
a small, but immense, point; in light of the discussion which followed.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
>>I said in my very first post "from a review".
a small, but immense, point; in light of the discussion which followed.
I have plenty of modelling clay, tsuwm, so if you could just send me some of your hair and/or fingernails, I can finish the doll I'm working on.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
There's a word I'm not remembering for a usage
Syllepsis! Thanks, wsieber!
(Odd--the Search on the word courage didn't find this; but jacket did.)
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
> the appearance of being self-contradictory
I thought we'd refuted that.
One small step…
At last I get to post and it's been said. The first thing that I thought of when I read the first post was Neil Armstrong, so I wonder if there was a hint of irony in the writer's mind, comparing the change in sotware with landing on the moon. But then ... I do tend to see irony where, maybe, it ain't.
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