--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Frederick Zackel" <fzackel@...>
wrote:
>
> Roberts wrote:
>
> "North Philly, May 4, 2001. Officer Sean Devlin, Narcotics Strike
Force, was
> working the morning shift. Undercover surveillance. The
neighborhood? Tough
> as a three-dollar steak. Devlin knew. Five years on the beat, nine
months
> with the Strike Force. He'd made fifteen, twenty drug busts in the
> neighborhood.
>
> "Devlin spotted him: a lone man on the corner. Another approached.
Quick
> exchange of words. Cash handed over; small objects handed back. Each
man
> then quickly on his own way. Devlin knew the guy wasn't buying bus
tokens.
> He radioed a description and Officer Stein picked up the buyer. Sure
enough:
> three bags of crack in the guy's pocket. Head downtown and book him.
Just
> another day at the office."
>
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/14/AR2008101402818.html?nav=hcmodule
>
> No jive. The dude's got a secret yearning ...
It sounds like he's channelling Ellroy... I wonder if people who have
to constantly read, write and talk the awful non-language that is
legal and formalistic language (also archaic) don't end up so sick of
it that they yearn for the hardboiled style. The hardboiled style is,
after all, the style of the street. People in the street don't bother
with moreovers and notwithstandings. They don't deal in words for the
sake of words.
Best,
mrt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 15 Oct 2008 EDT