orwell strikes again

here is a great article by george orwell - politics and the english language. a smack in the head to all of us who have ever written a sentence we didn't fully understand.

while we are on the topic of great writers, i just finished my first hunter s. thompson, the rum diary. i carefully selected this book from the available options at the cambridge public library - ie, it was the only one. turns out to be his first novel, started in 1959 (thompson was 22), although it wasn't published until 1998. took me a while to really get into the book, but by the end i was ready to hop on the next flight to san juan, glass of white rum and ice in hand. puerto rico, anyone?

apparently the rum diary is being made into a major motion picture. i'm very interested to see who will play hunter... er, paul.