Reading: An Eye Squinting Task
Language is our persuasion. And to commemorate our persuasion we present a series of articles on the written word: We may not agree with the writings of William Safire, but he’s proven that a college education is not required for weaving words and avoiding Sheridan’s Mrs. Malaprop. The Boston Globe treads daily in a pool of less-than-viral-words, Wikipedia might not exist without Samuel Johnson’s lexicography, and, in absolutely no honor of Mr. Johnson, Roman Polanski’s Wikipedia page has gone offline. P.J. O’Rourke — the quintessential Woodstock generation sellout — thinks the word “Altamont” defines Woodstock. Finally, In Case You Missed It, a review of strikingly old-century verbiage pits James Joyce in the same corner as The Atlantic . All told, it’s words to chew on. – Andrew Geer
– When we say someone is a warm person, we do not mean that they are running a fever. When we describe an issue as weighty, we have not actually used a scale to determine this. And when we say a piece of news is hard to swallow, no one assumes we have tried unsuccessfully to eat it. — Metaphors and the Mind in The Boston Globe
Safire Takes His Gloves Off
– Watch for repayment of favors. Stewart Alsop jocularly advised a novice columnist: “Never compromise your journalistic integrity – except for a revealing anecdote.” Example: a Nixon speechwriter told columnists that the president, at Camp David, boasted “I just shot 120,” to which Henry Kissinger said brightly “Your golf game is improving, Mr. President,” causing Nixon to growl “I was bowling, Henry.” After columnists gobbled that up, the manipulative writer collected in the coin of friendlier treatment.. — William Safire in The New York Times
– Samuel Johnson, poet, satirist, critic, lexicographer, and dyed-in-the-wool conservative was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, on September 18, 1709. We are quickly approaching the tercentenary of Johnson’s birth; scholars worldwide have been celebrating throughout the year. If someone’s birthday is worth celebrating three hundred years after the fact, inevitably partygoers will spread their praise pretty thick, as praise for Johnson has been spread since James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson was published in 1791. — Samuel Johnson in Humanities
– Wikipedia administrators have blocked filmmaker Roman Polanski’s Wikipedia page from being changed after an ‘edit war’ broke out following the news of Polanski’s arrest on child sex charges.– Roman Polanski in The Huffington Post
Andrew Geer (L), Kevin Murphy (R) At Woodstock
– No social phenomenon can be completely analyzed, thoroughly critiqued, and given its full philosophical due in just one word. Except Woodstock. Altamont. And that–except for the shaded sidebar containing the titles of the reviewed books–should be the end of this book review. However, the long weekend of August 15-17, 1969, was one of the great where-weren’t-you? moments of recent history. Along with 202,177,000 other Americans, where I wasn’t was at Woodstock. — P.J. O’Rourke in The Weekly Standard
– If the day should come that I walk into the classroom, unfurl my opening lecture on Joyce; and find at the end of the hour that I had as well been talking about Alfred Lord Tennyson, I shall not be unduly surprised. No writer’s original fame lasts forever with the young. — James Joyce in The Atlantic
Video: James Joyce’s Finnegan Wake
