Nice work, Sean. Safire (and George Will and Saul Bellow)are writers that I love to read despite the fact that I disagee with every damn thing they say. But never fear: some other grammarian will take over. One of his frequent subs. . .
I disagree with #1 -- I generally think your writing (Sean's) is some of the best in The Stranger. But in the Safire vein, what about this sentence: "Few if any writers in the public sphere were as abundantly knowledgeable about how language works than William Safire"? Your "than William Safire" should be "as William Safire."
Good a place as any for me to rant that if I hear one more ninny tack "going forward" onto an observation or aspiration (as FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg did on Diane Rehm this morning), my head will explode.
This meaningless turd seems to have been born in the business world, second only to the sports world as gestator of inanities.
@4: If you read much of Safire you'd know that he wasn't some stick-in-the-mud, old school grammarian. He was more than willing to let go of useless old conventions.
What he did not accept was lazy or simply wrong changes in language passed off as "new usage."
Perhaps his death embodies the change that swirls around all language. Safire is gone, new usage continues.
C'est la vie.
No, he wasn't a pedant. He had standards---- even if his politics were wrong wrong wrong.
Nice essay, Sean.
This meaningless turd seems to have been born in the business world, second only to the sports world as gestator of inanities.
http://gawker.com/5369364/william-safire…
I really liked your piece, and that you've dropped the "emeritus" from your handle.
What he did not accept was lazy or simply wrong changes in language passed off as "new usage."
What the heck happened with the 2nd amendment, then?
Please diagram those four clauses. Utter nonsense, grammatically speaking.