Thanks, Frederick. I'll consider your suggestions.
Hal "We are the zanies of sorrow."
-- Oscar Wilde
Halvard Johnson
============
email: [log in to unmask]
website: http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
{ Halvard Johnson wrote:
{ >
{ > The Figure the Day Makes
{ >
{ > -M = Missing data
{ > * = Data may not provide a valid measure of conditions.
{ >
{ > One slight room may gently mock another.
{ > If the basin-wide percent of average value is flagged as potentially
{ > invalid, care should be taken to evaluate if the value is representative
{ > of conditions in the basin.
{ >
{ > Snow water equivalent percent of average represents the snow water
{ > equivalent found at selected motel sites in or near the basin
{ > compared to the average value for those sites today.
{ >
{ > The total precipitation percent of average represents the total precipitation
{ > (beginning October 1st) found at selected motel sites in or near the basin
{ > compared to the average value for those sites on this day.
{ > Contact your state water supply staff for assistance.
{ >
{ > Reference period for average conditions is 1961-90.
{ > Provisional data, subject to revision.
{ >
{ > +
{ >
{ > Conditions = the water site conditions measured near the basin's
{ > motels beginning in May.
{ >
{ > Reference for average of wide validity compared to any staff
{ > day when Truth knocks at your door.
{ >
{ > When I heard her voice behind his door, I flagged the site
{ > for further evaluation. Compared to the truth of God, -M
{ >
{ > your words* were just heavy breathing.
{ > I came out of my room, hoping, as always,
{ >
{ > for the best.
{ >
{ > +
{ >
{ > Reference for average of invalid sentiments*
{ > at selected sites proved hard to find. The god of cancer
{ > rendered assistance.
{ >
{ > Reading Canone Inverso brightened my day,
{ > comparatively speaking, your voice
{ > for selected conditions, wider than my choice of berths.
{ >
{ > Equivalent water sites can be measured for
{ > selected conditions, he purred.
{ > (Value for t = average author?)
{ >
{ > Or maybe I shouldn't cite their figures -M
{ > for fear of misreading day conditions.
{ >
{ > +
{ >
{ > If trying the first door doesn't work, then try
{ > the second, and, if that doesn't work, the third, etc.
{ >
{ > Just don't expect the staff to come running to your assistance.
{ > One or two* may try to reach out to you, but
{ >
{ > well . . . other fish to fry, as you already know. Who can
{ > speak for those without tongues? All I have is a voice.
{ >
{ > --Halvard Johnson
{ >
{ > Hal
{ >
{ > Halvard Johnson
{ > ===============
{ > email: [log in to unmask]
{ > website: http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
{ >
{ >
{
{ I like this. That -M and * convention is lucid, easy to remember, and
{ has potential for considerably more play than you give it here. I'd
{ like it if the bureaucratese/land-survey diction at the beginning could
{ be, not reduced, but condensed - it's so boring in itself that any
{ transition, however gradual, to a more humanistic language seems abrupt.
{ E.g. "percent of average value is flagged as potentially invalid" - this
{ sentence would mean pretty much the same if any one of its words before
{ "invalid" ("percent," "average," "flagged," "potentially") were dropped
{ - or even two of them. The end is especially strong. But in
{ penultimate stanza, do you need "running"? Doesn't seem to fit. Nice
{ work.
|