by Richard Subber | Jun 30, 2026 | Language, Tidbits
“…Go and tell the guy what you want.”
The wisdom of David Mackenzie Ogilvy (1911-1999)
This is trenchant advice on how to write well—still relevant almost 45 years after it was written by David Ogilvy, who was renowned in the late 20th century as “The Father of Modern Advertising.”
Now, to be sure, Ogilvy’s legendary sway in the ad biz was recognized in pre-internet, pre-wired, pre-Twitter days when ad copy was deemed more salient and more powerful than ad buzz.
Indeed, Ogilvy’s famous memo “How To Write” was circulated far beyond the Mad Men-world of his agency, Ogilvy & Mather, after he wrote it on September 7, 1982.
Here it is:
- Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
- Write the way you talk. Naturally.
- Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
- Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
- Never write more than two pages on any subject.
- Check your quotations.
- Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it.
- If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
- Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
- If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.
At this point, I know I shouldn’t embarrass myself by trying to reconceptualize or translate Ogilvy’s observations for you…
OK, I can’t resist this one: I think Item 10 is the best. In today’s wired world this can be translated to “If you want to reach an agreement or have an argument, don’t send a text or email when you can call the other party or talk face-to-face.”
Note: the reference in Item 1 is to a now-standard work by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson, Writing That Works: How to Communicate Effectively in Business. A 3rd edition was issued in 2000.
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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: Shantung Compound
They didn’t care much
about each other…
by Langdon Gilkey
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My first name was rain: A dreamery of poems with 52 free verse and haiku poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 28, 2026 | Theater and play reviews
weeping in silence…
Movie review:
Chinatown
Chinatown is a see-it-again confirmation of the finality of sadness that can’t be undone.
Jack Nicholson is the in-your-face private detective, Jake Gittes, and Faye Dunaway is Evelyn Mulwray, the desperately unhappy wife-mother who seems to be everybody’s victim—both of them in Oscar-nominee performances.
Chinatown (1974, rated R, 130 minutes) mostly doesn’t take place in Chinatown—the story could happen anywhere. There is enough of intrigue, and enough of human failing, and enough of human courage. There is ambition, and yearning, and avarice, and benevolence, and hints of love.
It is a tantalizing story about people you don’t want to be, and people you hope may achieve better lives, and people who must finally face the reality of life on the wrong track.
At the end you will be weeping in silence.
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Movie review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: “The Gentle Boy”
The Puritans had a dark side…
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 25, 2026 | Language, My poetry
spreading the welcome
Plain talk
Alone, so much alone,
but so far from lonely.
I look ahead to the trail that waits,
I look back to the fading trail
that beckoned me to pass,
the plain retreats to distant crags,
the land invites a careless step,
the trail can wait.
This great space, so open,
so mute, such emptiness
framed for imagination and desire,
I sow my thoughts
and spread my welcome
to the eager land
that pulls my step,
and kindles my bright gaze
as I embrace this moment,
and understand that here
it is impossible to be lonely.
April 16, 2026
Inspired by “At the Seven-Mile Ranch, Comstock, Texas” (1982)
by Naomi Shihab Nye (b1952)
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: An Empire on the Edge
by Nick Bunker
The British wanted to win
the Revolutionary War,
but they had good reasons
for not trying too hard…
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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 74 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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by Richard Subber | Jun 23, 2026 | American history, Book reviews, Books, History
upright folks made the start
Book review:
One Small Candle
by Thomas J. Fleming (1927-2017)
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1964
222 pages
Wow! One Small Candle is a satisfyingly readable, confidently written, fully researched book about the terrifyingly precarious lives of the Mayflower crew and passengers in 1620. You didn’t want to be there. So many of them died at sea or too soon after they landed at Plymouth Bay.
Fleming just tells it like it was. For long times, they had too little food and drink, couldn’t wash, couldn’t change their clothes , and watched their sick family members and friends die because nothing could be done to help them.
Think about living for weeks in a small house with unthinkably low ceilings and no bathrooms and 100 other people. Even if you like the other people, that ain’t fun.
I don’t want to gloss over this part: Fleming makes the common mistake of calling the native inhabitants “savages.” They weren’t “savages.” They weren’t Europeans, of course. They were among millions who lived in and civilized North America for thousands of years before the Europeans “discovered” it.
They Mayflower passengers were an upright mix of dedicated religious folk and mostly hearty adventurers. Many of them gave their lives in their quest to build new lives at Plymouth. They struggled mightily to light one small candle, and sometimes they happily sang around the candle. Their candle burns still, and we have to be careful that we don’t snuff it out.
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Book review. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Sea Runners
…it informs, it does not soar…
by Ivan Doig
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many waters: more poems with 53 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
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by Richard Subber | Jun 20, 2026 | My poetry, Poetry, Reflections
your smiles abide…
Heartbeats
The last goodbye may hurt my heart,
but you have touched my cheek
when I forgot to smile,
we sang plain notes dipped in love.
We’re on a road
that we’ve tried to imagine,
but it is a strange road,
there is no straight ahead,
there are turnings we’ve never known,
we’re not in a race
but there is a finish line,
there is no turning back,
you may go
but not so very far away.
Your living here is done,
but I’m not done with you,
you are a teacher to my heart,
our fingers blend a lovers’ knot,
your tender touch lingers
on the cheeks of the kids,
your smiles abide in every room.
I say goodbye
but I won’t forget.
My memories heal my heart.
April 14, 2026
Inspired by this quotation: “Experience is in the fingers and head. The heart is inexperienced.”
(1842, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862))
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My poetry. Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2026 All rights reserved.
Book review: The Snow Goose
…sensual drama, eminently poetic…
by Paul Gallico
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Empyrean: new poems with 57 free verse poems,
and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)
and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”
Your comments are welcome—tell me what you’re thinking.
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