Combat descriptions...?

[Mark]

I agree. The secret to telling a good story, or a good joke, or just making interesting conversation is to tell enough to convey your meaning without rambling on and on.

If you want to tell somebody about how you got into a car accident (for example), you should concentrate on the main ideas...the interesting things that happened to you. Not all the fiddly details.

If you blew a tire and lost control of the car, say that happened, don't ramble on about the fact that they were Firestone 2001 steel belted eagle tires with the whitewall stripes and you got them at a discount from the nice tire dealer who was wearing a pink bowtie and eating twinkies from a box...you know I think twinkies are underrated as a snack cake, but they're not as good as little debbie snack cakes but...


you get the picture.

Sometimes it is about what you imply...

A man left his cat with his brother while he went on vacation for a week. When he came back, the man called his brother to see when he could pick the cat up. The brother hesitated, then said, ''I'm so sorry, but while you were away, the cat died." The man was very upset and yelled, ''You know, you could have broken the news to me better than that. When I called today, you could have said he was on the roof and wouldn't come down. Then when I called the next day, you could have said that he had fallen off and the vet was working on patching him up. Then when I called the third day, you could have said he had passed away.''

The brother thought about it and apologized.

"So how's Mom?" asked the man.

The brother begins, "Mom's on the roof..."