On the late Boston Transcript, a feature writer, with a fondness for using three words where one would do, once referred to bananas as "elongated yellow fruit." This periphrasis so fascinated Charles W. Morton, now the associate editor of the Atlantic, that he began collecting examples of "Elongated Yellow Fruit" writing. Friends on newspapers and magazines have joined in the game, send him the worst examples they can find for the Atlantic Bulletin, a chatty monthly promotion letter (circ. 5,000). Samples:
ΒΆ In the New York Herald Tribune a beaver was almost incognito as "the furry, paddle-tailed mammal." CJ In the...
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