"Then" Should Be "Now"

Writing ads is fascinating. Every detail counts. I’d been fretting over one particular ad for a few days. Just one word in the whole paragraph gnawed at me incessantly – the 2nd “Then”. Did it make sense? It did. Was it necessary? It was. Did it sound repetitive? To me it did but I wasn’t sure. So I showed it to a few people but none of them felt anything needed to be changed. “Maybe I’m just being over-fussy again”, I thought. Nonetheless, I showed it one more person, Ah Neh (never mind how the nickname came about). He said, matter-of-factly, “Then” should be “Now” and tears welled up in my eyes. Of course! That was it. Why hadn’t I thought of that? It was right there on my bloody nose. Ah heck. That’s the way it is sometimes.


[Weiming, upon accosting me at Khatib MRT] You look like a Malay.

Ack.