The Copyeditor I Drew Was

"very" Is The Most Useless Word In The English Language And Can Always Come Out. More Than Useless, It Is Treacherous Because It Invariably Weakens What It Is Intended To Strengthen. For Example, Would You Rather Hear The Mincing Shallowness Of "i Love You Very Much" Or The Heart-slamming Intensity Of "i Love You"?

Oppressed People Are Treacherous For The Simple Reason That Treachery Is Both A Means Of Survival And A Way To Curry Favor With One's Oppressor.

If We Define A Misanthrope As 'someone Who Does Not Suffer Fools And Likes To See Fools Suffer,' We Have Described A Person With Something To Look Forward To.

I'm For Prayer In The Schools Because Ritual And Ceremony Are Calming And Civilizing, And The Little Fartlings Should Be Tamped Down Whenever Possible.

The American Way Of Stress Is Comparable To Freud's 'beloved Symptom', His Name For The Cherished Neurosis That A Patient Cultivates Like The Rarest Of Orchids And Does Not Want To Be Cured Of. Stress Makes Americans Feel Busy, Important, And In Demand, And Simultaneously Deprived, Ignored, And Victimized. Stress Makes Them Feel Interesting And Complex Instead Of Boring And Simple, And Carries An Assumption Of Sensitivity Not Unlike The Old World Assumption That Aristocrats Were High-strung. In Short, Stress Has Become A Status Symbol.