My Friend Bill Gough

My friend and fellow writer Bill Gough passed away recently.

Bill was a retired newspaper man, most of his years spent at The Seattle Times. Their obituary calls him "a keen observer, a graceful writer". I met Bill in a writing class and was immediately and forever a fan of his great writing. Bill could do all kinds of writing with skill and ease, including humor.

In tribute I share a bit of it here:

“It’s clear that it is time that you learned the difference between it’s and it is, isn’t it?

But first we all have to learn when to say “lie” when we mean “lay” and vice versa. The first rule of this anomaly is to say the following line 5,000 times before laying down for sleep. Oops, I mean “before lying down”. Only hens lay eggs. The rest of us lie when we say “lie” eggs. (Or something like this..) Just remember, we lie down and once we are lying down it is nice to be laying there.”

Truth be told I’m not sure if this is original or not, but it’s (oops I mean its) style is pure Bill.

We’ll miss you Bill!

Photo: Stock.xchnge