Periscope Depth

check the technique, see if you can follow it

Forbes.com has published an op-ed that is the least literate thing I’ve read since the last time I read a Forbes.com op-ed. And I’m not talking about content. I’m talking purely about the ability to string a sentence together and make its meaning clear. Some highlights: Call me prejudice [sic], but if the credibility of [...]

hong kong, part 2

(Part 1) Between Tsim Sha Tsui, Central and Wan Chai, about one of every forty people you pass on the street is Caucasian. If they’re not wearing a tailored suit, they’re tourists. The ratio gets even lower once you get out of downtown. I had never been to a city where I was that much [...]

words, words, words

Book sellers are unhappy with Amazon’s growing domination of the publishing industry: “Amazon is holding the entire book industry hostage,” says Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association. “First they disintermediated retailers, and now it’s publishers and authors.” Not to poke fun at a man who’ll be unemployed in 5 years, but if you’re [...]

leave all your love and your loving behind

Should I pick on Tom Friedman? I don’t know. Seeing a new Tom Friedman column is like running into a Lyndon LaRouche agitator in Park Street station, scratching his thinning hair, asking me which subway goes to Harvard. I could point out his mistakes, sure, but I’m much more likely to send him on the [...]

sentence begins indented with formality

My friend Tom, a lawyer in D.C., passed me this link last week to a job application gone awry. I don’t know that I’m the intended audience for this sort of train wreck, though. Most of the people who commented on the e-mail exchange were amused / offended at the paralegal’s ignorance (“it’s amazing that [...]

everybody's at disadvantage speaking with their second language

So I’m at a bar on Saturday with the other jiu-jitsu students after one of our own promoted to nidan, or second degree black belt. We rented the back room in one of the nightclubs on Boylston St, less than a block from where I work. The outside’s full of scheming scenesters with unbuttoned shirts; [...]

most friendship is feigning; most loving mere folly

Directing Discount Shakespeare: As You Like It In Forty-Five Minutes has made my weeks more exciting. For one thing, I picked a really good cast. They show up every night enthused to tackle the material. For another, I’m happy to be back in the theater again. I love having a show in production. But mostly, [...]

but we've got the biggest balls of them all

Talking with a very good friend of mine last week, we mentioned a mutual female acquaintance whom, I said, “had the ovaries to pull something like that off.” “Huh?” my friend asked. “Like saying, ‘she had the balls to pull it off.’ Only, y’know, ovaries.” “Right, right; I got that.” I still got the quizzical [...]

we never did too much talking anyway

I would like the following euphemisms excised from polite speech: “It is what it is.” No. I disagree. Now let’s fight over it. It doesn’t much help that “it is what it is” most often surfaces as a sort of cheery fatalism, an unwillingness to tackle a problem. We can’t change the facts! If I [...]

I'm a sinner, I'm a saint; I do not feel ashamed

Christine pointed out last week that all of UrbanDictionary’s definitions of feminism are pretty wretched. I navigated over to check and, sure enough, it’s some kind of travesty. It’s a rather well-cloaked travesty, don’t get me wrong – all sorts of intellectual shit like “if feminism were really about equality, it would be called humanism.”1 [...]

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  • Periscope Depth

    The website of John Perich, author of TOO CLOSE TO MISS and editor for Overthinking It. He's learning about writing, marketing, publishing and promotion, and he encourages you to learn along with him.

    perich@periscopedepth.com

  • TOO CLOSE TO MISS




    "... opens with a bang and never relents ..."
    "... from chapter one, I couldn't put the damn thing down ..."
    "... already looking forward to Perich's next book ..."

    Mara Cunningham knew that sleeping with a married man was a bad idea. But when her lover shows up in the hospital after his wife and son are murdered, the rumors about her turn dangerous. Now she's the prime suspect in a double homicide, and the real killers will stop at nothing to silence her ...

    Buy the book that readers are calling "a great, suspenseful thriller" at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online retailers.



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