RE: “Slinging words together”

The other day (Monday, June 3rd, 2013) I received an e-mail from an old friend I graduated college with in 1966.
He was in my class, and like me he’s into snide-remarks.
He made the mistake of equating “slinging words together” with “slinging it.”
“Slinging words together” is what I call my writing, this blog for example.
“Slinging it,” and I’ll use his terminology here, is letting the mind “wander,” generating copy out of thin air, making things up.
“Slinging words together” is more assembling words into readable understandable copy, avoiding syntactical errors.
“Slinging words together” goes back to high-school, when my 12th-grade English teacher told be I could write really well.
I thought him joking!
“But Dr. Zink,” I said; “all it is is slinging words together.”
I forgot about it, despite acing nearly every college paper.
In fact, I nearly aced college-physics based on my lab-reports.
After college I fell into writing motorsports coverage for a tiny weekly newspaper in Rochester.
(I was following sportscar racing.)
Some of my writing was pretty good, although I often destroyed it with turgid self-editing.
I remember tossing an entire race-report and then just letting ‘er rip. Describe all the sliding racecars and sawing at the wheel. —That story crashed when I realized I still had to report the race results.
I also remember covering sportscar races at Watkins Glen from lakeside. That is, I spent more time reporting swimming in the lake than the actual races; which weren’t professional.
During my tenure as a bus-driver for Regional Transit Service I fell into doing a monthly voluntary newsletter for my bus-union.
It was a bucking-bronco, and I no longer had time from self-editing.
Just let ‘er rip! Depend on my ability to successfully sling words together.
I had Transit management cowering. I was writing stories on scrap-paper and keying them in until 3 a.m.
My newsletter was circulated to politicos that funded transit, and they’d read it because it was a good read.
I’ve found I never have to let my mind “wander,” make things up.
Insanity is all around me. All I have to do is report and describe it. I’ll see it, then let my talent for successfully “slinging words together” describe it.
Little editing is required, although sometimes I get syntactical errors I can correct without destroying my story — that is, I’m not restructuring things.
If there’s any talent, and I surmise there is, it’s I can depend on what I write, that little editing is needed.
For example, I was returning home that day from a medical appointment, and some pretty young mother, car full of kids, blithely cut me off in her Subaru Outback.
I had to juke around her.
Before my wife died, that would have merited a blog. But with my wife gone, I rarely have time to blog traffic-insanity.
I used to blog almost every day; now I’m down to 1-3 times per week.
But I’m not “making things up,” “slinging it.” I’m just describing what I see, “slinging words together” to do so.
I certainly do enough factual research.

• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs. My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that. I retired on medical-disability. While there I belonged to the local division (“Local 282”) of the nationwide Amalgamated Transit Union. Our local holds a regular business meeting the third Thursday of each month.
• My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012.