https://mobile.twitter.com/IvanTheK/status/1199705110206722048
Pre-dinner drinks is early enough … cocktails anyone?
1 Like
Don’t worry! A constitutionally, fair minded Supreme Court will straighten all this out.
whole foods sure understands it’s clientele
1 Like
The magazine isn’t associated with the store.
Writing history is fucking hard. Please help me get over my mental block.
Before the trans-peninsular highway was completed in 1974 - driving Baja on anything faster than a donkey was basically an expedition.
Is there some less passive way to say this that doesn’t turn driving into a noun and lead with a clause? Because this is all my constipated brain can produce right now, sentence after sentence of passive clauses and turning verbs and adjectives into nouns. IE:
Baja’s ruggedness and general hostility to human civilization have earned it the nickname - The Indomitable Peninsula.
Is that terrible or does it just sound like a 4th grade geography report to me?
Is history just hard to write w/o doing that since it’s all in the past?
Maybe use “the completion of the trans-peninsular highway” instead, eg. “Until the completion” or “With the completion … ended an era when driving Baja on…”?
Baja California, as it is commonly known, is 800 miles long - varying from 74 to 144 miles wide, with some 2000+ miles of craggy coastline - bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Sea of Cortez to the east. As far as long, skinny, isolated peninsulas – Baja’s only rival is the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia (also an important feature in the game of Risk). It takes 3 days to drive from the US border to Los Cabos at the southern tip - assuming one follows the standard overlander rule of never driving at night - which in Baja is extremely advisable due to the chassis-destroying potholes. Before the trans-peninsular highway was completed in 1974 - driving Baja on anything faster than a donkey was basically an expedition.
Here’s the whole paragraph. It’s intended as part of a high-level introduction to the stuff I will go into more depth on during the Baja chapter (interspersed with my personal travel stuff - which is easy to write since apparently I’m a lot more fascinated with myself than history or geography).
The risk thing is an allusion to an earlier chapter. I’ll probably take it out.
“Before 1974 driving Baja on anything faster than a donkey was basically an expedition - until the completion of the trans-peninsular highway ended that era.”
I am not sure about the verb here as you would ride a donkey and drive a donkey cart. If you think “travelling” is too bland, maybe go for “touring” or “navigating”. Maybe it’s just an idiomatic use I am not aware of.
Drop the hyphens: they’re an eyesore and affect fluidity.
4 Likes
Baja California, as it is commonly known, is 800 miles long, varying in width from 74 to 144 miles, with over 2000 miles of craggy coastline. Bordered by the Pacific to the west and, to the east, by the Sea of Cortez, Baja is perhaps most comparable to the Kamatchka Peninsula in Russia, both in its dimensions and in its sheer isolation - though only the latter is a key strategic feature in the game of Risk. Traveling from the US border to Los Cabos, at the southern tip, is a three-day drive, assuming one follows the standard overlander rule of never driving at night - extremely advisable in Baja, due to the chassis-destroying potholes; before the trans-peninsular highway’s completion in 1974, driving Baja on anything faster than a donkey was rough trekking.
This flows better, imo. I would lose the Risk reference. “Basically an expedition” isn’t a phrase I’m familiar with and I don’t think it lands despite being obvious in context. I don’t love the dash into a semi-colon (especially not after a dash in the preceding sentence, though I’m honestly mentally editing out the Risk thing) but any real adjustment would mean major re-arrangement and probably some brackets.
Pretty much what Flynn said but with fewer commas.
Happy thanksgiving, amigos y amigas 
7 Likes
Thanks guys - I’m playing with some of these ideas now.
I do seem addicted to hyphens. I just can’t seem to get my thoughts into manageable sentences. I have however made this more fun again by talking about my favorite subject - me.
I’ve been utterly fascinated with the Baja Peninsula since the first time I saw it on a map. Yet somehow, despite over 20 years of exploring and photographing the US West as a hobby, to my great shame I’d never made it further than Ensenada - only about 50 miles south of the US border. At long last, it was time to take my copy of the excellent Baja Adventure Book off the shelf - where it had silently mocked me for 17 years since I brought it home from REI - and put it into action.
Still working on the wording but I like the jokes.
2 Likes
Btw - here’s me writing about as good as I can:
https://medium.com/@suzzer99/how-not-to-do-a-job-search-1e99d96358c6
I think the key is to be angry and have a strong point. Or something.
All I want is my book to be this straightforward and impactful and I’m struggling to find my history-regurgitator voice.
1 Like
lol ‘nice prioritizing, brain!’
and the Showtime at the Apollo-style exit
It was really that bad.