What is “sentence flavor?” I’ve never heard the term. You seem to be using it to justify the inclusion of irrelevant details as if that makes a sentence “taste”

What is “sentence flavor?” I’ve never heard the term. You seem to be using it to justify the inclusion of irrelevant details as if that makes a sentence “taste” differently. Well, irrelevant details don’t make for very interesting writing and usually people don’t scatter words over their sentences like bacon bits over a salad unless they’re writing terrible fiction. So maybe the word is relevant. It’s not obvious to me what the relevance is, so asking seems pretty logical. Otherwise a reader is forced to conclude that it somehow has to do with white, presumably Australian stereotypes. Likewise, if Perth is included it clues the reader into a more specific area which might tell us something or not, depending on our pre-existing knowledge of Perth. No reader is going to conclude that the detail Perth was added merely for “flavor” and has no other significance. They might not have asked even if ignorant, because they might’ve made their own assumptions (e.g. this is an area where the trees can be found), but they wouldn’t assume it was a meaningless detail. And yes, I think I might have asked about relevance if the poster had said, “My roommates, while wearing purple t-shirts, told me...” When you add in the baggage that comes with race and racial stereotypes are you really surprised anyone asked? You don’t even have to be offended to not understand why race was included.