EARNEST WORDS
from Ernest Nicastro
Opinions, musings, thoughts, ideas and the occasional rant…on life, language, marketing, advertising and what's going on in the world.
from Ernest Nicastro
No Comment“Eighty-seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation….The Gettysburg Address
Thankfully, Abraham Lincoln was not only a great leader, he was a great writer. So instead of beginning his Gettysburg Address with a cold, lifeless number, he opens on a prayerful note with a turn of phrase adapted from the 90th Psalm of the King James Bible: “Four score and seven.”
Clearly, Lincoln knew the difference between the almost right word – and, the RIGHT word. A distinction defined by Mark Twain some 25 years later as…”the …
It is a crisp, clear autumn afternoon. About 1:30. A full sun hangs in a bright blue sky. A large crowd mills about.
The date: November 19th. The year: 1863. The place: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Imagine, for a moment, that you are there. You jostle for position. You strain your neck to get a glimpse. You cup your hand behind your ear…as the 16th President of the United States steps to the center of the platform and begins his “few appropriate remarks.”
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this …
