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Reader question: Please explain this sentence: Four wives, seven children, 350 albums….Willie Nelson has never done anything by halves. My comments: In other words, if Willie Nelson, the American folk music star, goes in for something, he goes all the way in, never half-heartedly. Never half-heartedly should be the correct interpretation of “never done anything by halves”. To do something by halves, you see, is to literally get something halfway done and not to complete the job. Children often do things by halves, or by half, for example. For example, they eat half of the rice in their bowl before going out to kick balls. If they’re reading a book, they won’t be able to finish a few pages before being distracted by something else, something on television, for instance. They begin to do a lot of things but don’t seem to be able to finish any. Their curiosity for new things is perhaps too great for staying on the same activity for long. And that is not entirely a fault, mind you. Many adults would love to retain that curiosity and dabble at different things, goofing around a bit more. Anyways, metaphorically speaking, if someone does things by halves, then they do them half-heartedly. That is, without total devotion, dedication or commitment. In other words, they’re just not serious. Not Willie Nelson, though. Nelson seems to do things in extremes. When Nelson marries a woman, he marries four of them – not all at the same time, of course, thank goodness. Children? He has not one but seven of them. Albums? 350! | 
