A funny.

From a posting on writing


Armed gunman – Redundant phrase. You don’t need armed. Ex: An armed gunman robbed the bank today. Better: A gunman robbed the bank today.

An idea for science fiction. In the land of worms or snakes, an "armed gunman' would be unusual. As in:

Bob Carpenter found himself stranded on voxel 3. While the native worms could understand him, the result of years of exposure to Terran soap operas, they had little use for an awkward creature. Especially a creature that could neither slither through the burrows, nor process the soil into fertile castings. The space ship captains took cash, hard cash, for transit back home. When they took something other than cash it was gold, or any spare organs. Down to his last kidney, Bob did the unthinkable. 

The next day the newspaper tracklines read "Armed Gunman Rob's Bank."


It's been a tough week teaching.