Word: mona
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...versatility of the cast becomes more apparent upon a re-viewing. Colgate Salsbury's Treasure Island scene, for example, is a high point of the first act. Barbara Forester as Red Riding Hood is a far cry from Mona Lisa, and a good thing too. Miss Forester is a muggy, engaging comedienne. Sheila Tobais' comic talents also struck me more last evening, especially in the opera parody. As for Clare Scott, were the HDC not egalitarian and had Peabody Playhouse a marquee, her name would be at the top, she is certainly the star...
...Mona is the Government's No. expert on letters. Her pamphlet on style, her precooked form paragraphs, and her mail-room short cuts are standard in many Government offices. Her nix-list of 150 avoidable words and phrases is well known to Washington letter writers. Samples: Held in abeyance (wait is better), at the earliest possible moment ("this may be the moment the letter arrives"), finalize, (a "manufactured" word), in the near future ("say soon"), attached please find ("attached is is adequate...
Jingles & Backlogs. As a girl, Mona Sheppard came out of the University of Alabama with big plans for becoming a poetess, but when she found she was most successful at selling jingles to a greeting-card company, she got a job with the Treasury as a correspondence clerk and devoted herself to belles-lettres, government style. In time she became the top expert on managing the enormous correspondence programs of Government agencies. Four years ago she went to work for the National Archives, as a troubleshooter who ranged all over the Government improving the flow of words and mail...
...when the regional commissioner of Internal Revenue asked for funds for 47 new employees to help catch up with a backlog of 50,000 letters in Baltimore, he got Mona instead. She revamped the Baltimore office's correspondence system, reduced the backlog to 3,000 letters without hiring a single new employee, and saved the Government $157,200 a year. The Sheppard system is now being adopted by all 64 district offices of the Internal Revenue Service, will ultimately save the taxpayers $5,500,000 a year...
...spare time Mona collects great letters of famous writers (her favorites: Abraham Lincoln, Walter Hines Page), but is unable to keep up her own personal correspondence. Explains Mona: "I just can't bring myself to write personal letters...