"flipper" wrote in message
...

On the 'dumb blonde' aspect, one of my favorite scenes is
where William Holden reads her an editorial on corruption
he's written and gets a blank stare because it's filled with
allusions and metaphors. "Don't you get it?" .... "No."

Actually, the problem is that it's written at a college-grad level. See
below.


So he proceeds to explain it metaphor by metaphor, then 'wraps
it up' together in summary, and she remarks "Well, why didn't
you say so?"

He gives a puzzled look as if to say "I thought I did" but you get
the impression he just might also be thinking she had a point
(and she did).

As a technical writer, I love this scene. Holden is writing to an "educated"
audience, using long sentences and big words when short ones will do. It's a
classic demonstration that the best way to write is (usually) to simply say
what you mean, in a straight-forward manner.

Fancy writing is easy. Simple writing is difficult.