I have been a professional journalist for many years, writing criticism for domestic and international music magazines, and most recently as a blogger for the Huffington Post.

My love affair with English began with the first book I read entirely to myself, in the 2nd grade. That the book was "The 13 Clocks" by James Thurber, who had grown blind by the time he wrote it. I think this may be why he was so sensitive to the cadence of language at this point in his career. His way of creating pr...