Any
sentence gets very much stronger with its removal. Check it out.
Epilog:
Some 14 years after publishing this essay, I had a conversation
with a certain French Woman about a party she had attended at a home in
Berkeley. Without irony, she described her hosts as “very alternative.”
I was instantly charmed at the exceptions to my personal proscriptions
-- two at the same time. Thus, I am henceforth prepared to
tolerate the use of very if and only if that dreaded word is immediately
followed by another, alternative.
Any
sentence gets very much stronger with its removal. Check it out.