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Random mutterings
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Recent Chicken Scratchings
Over the summer, I had the chance to visit some of the historic areas of Philadelphia. In one corner of this older of American cities, a great number of key documents in our nation’s history were drafted. (If you ever have the opportunity to visit, I highly recommend it.)
Since that little visit, I have been thinking about the Founding Fathers’ choice of language. In particular, the opening phrase of the Declaration of Independence, ‘When in the course of human events, …’, is such a striking choice of phraseology. At times I think it tremendously profound. At others, I think it just sounds pompous. That said, I’d certainly agree that given the historical importance that the document has taken on over time, Thomas Jefferson and his friends were wise to have chosen such elegant diction.
I still haven’t quite figured out how to work in that particular phrase into a work email …
Posted 6 Jan 2011
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4 Responses to “When in the course of human events …”
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I wonder what the Declaration of Independence might have sounded like were it done via Twitter?
@kinggeorgeIII Guess what? We quit! Gonna start our own country! Try to stop us. #taxationwithoutrepresentation
@ Liam is that how you’d tweet a declaration of independence?
Brilliant!
I think if I was John Hancock I’d have thrown out something like
@kinggeorgeIII Been a good ride, but I think we’re heading in different directions. Wish you the best. Peace out. http://bit.ly/gxhIjv
Anyone else have a thought as to how they’d tweet the declaration of independence?
Do you think WITCOHE could become the “Tweetshrink” version of when in the course of human events?