Word: plaining
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...service in two wars, felt nothing for the financial plight of our little vacationing soldier boys in Germany. The U.S. military is totally overpaid and pampered. I've had occasions to observe our soldiers' behavior in Germany, both married and unmarried; and in most cases, if not plain ignorant, it's shabby. Many Germans are totally fed up with the ill-disciplined, prideless people we call the military...
...scouts sighted the telltale wilt in its leaves two years ago. They cut off some of the branches, but by last spring there were more signs of distress. Williams and his men gave the tree injections in a last bid to save its life. By September, however, it was plain there was no hope. Williams sadly ordered Old 75's destruction to try to save the remaining 26 elms on the White House grounds...
...will cut down on Government regulations," Jimmy Carter assured his fireside-chat audience last winter, "and we will make sure that those that are written are in plain English for a change." The spark ignited by the President has been slow to take hold. The U.S., after all, is a land flowing with torts and breaches, and much in thrall to the legal profession. But the forces of hereinafter, res ipsa loquitur and-party of the first part are now clearly on the defensive...
Guerrilla warfare against legalese is busting out all over. For example, the Federal Trade Commission has assigned Language Expert Rudolf Flesch, author of several books on plain English, to redraft some ordinarily impenetrable regulations. Joseph Califano has recently hired Barnard College Political Scientist Inez Smith Reid to improve and simplify Health, Education and Welfare Department prose. Among other agency heads arguing for brevity and clarity, Interstate Commerce Commission Chairman Daniel O'Neal last spring issued an exhortation stating: "English is a remarkably clear, flexible and useful language. We should use it in all our communications...
...December a conference in the nation's capital on regulations in plain English drew 800 participants, most of them Government employees. "Five years ago," said Legal Consultant James Minor, a member of the American Bar Association's committee on legal drafting, "we could have offered solid-gold Cadillacs as door prizes and not attracted 25 people." Wayne Granquist, a Carter appointee in the Office of Management and Budget, called attention to the plight of citizens confronted with bad writing. Until recently, applicants for a Citizens Band radio license were advised: "Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this...