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.
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