 |
|
|
 |
Sunday, October 22, 2006 08:19:01 PM
It's mailbag time! Bradford O'Connor of Lacey, Wash., asks for a ruling on "quality" as an adjective, e.g., "that loaf of bread is a quality product." The proper response is: Aaargh! In an orderly world, "quality" would be treated with the respect that is owed to a 600-year-old noun.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006 07:03:54 PM
Seventeen years have passed since Jeffrey Landrigan murdered Chester Dean Dyer, but the story won't go away. Now the record is resting in the U.S. Supreme Court on Arizona's appeal from a regrettable decision in the 9th Circuit. It's time to mark this case closed.
Sunday, October 15, 2006 08:19:50 PM
William and Mary Morris were unequivocal. When the two scholars edited Harper's Dictionary of Contemporary Usage in 1985, they gave only seven lines to the entry for everyone/everybody. They said:
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 08:00:30 PM
For Victor Harris, his saddest words were surely these: "If only I had pulled over ..."
Sunday, October 08, 2006 08:20:03 PM
Macbeth, understandably, had insomnia. He yearned for the "sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care." Why didn't he hanker for the sleep that knits up the UNraveled sleep of care? Because it would not have properly scanned! There would have been one iamb too many!
Tuesday, October 03, 2006 08:00:12 PM
Viewed in one way, the two union labor cases now awaiting argument in the Supreme Court are much ado about mighty little. Viewed from another angle, the cases involve a principle as fundamental as the Eighth Commandment. The Eighth is the one that says we shall not steal.
Sunday, October 01, 2006 08:19:29 PM
The Court of Peeves, Crotches & Irks resumes its autumn assizes with a motion from Roberta Brown of Buffalo, N.Y. She asks for clarification "of the 'any' words." Are they spelled as one word or two? As an exhibit she offers an editorial in The New York Times discussing troop withdrawal from Iraq "anytime in the foreseeable future."
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 08:00:13 PM
Let us suppose, to be supposing, that you are the parents of three children who attend Mesquite Elementary School in Palmdale, Calif. In December 2001 you receive a letter from the school. It asks your support in a study of children in the first, third and fifth grades.
Sunday, September 24, 2006 08:19:08 PM
This is today's mind-boggling question: Is it possible to "berate" a corpse?
Tuesday, September 19, 2006 08:00:05 PM
Unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, Morton R. Berger will spend the rest of his life in an Arizona prison. Maybe he deserves it. Then again, maybe not. These are the facts.
Sunday, September 17, 2006 08:19:56 PM
The Court of Peeves, Crotchets & Irks opens its autumn assizes with a Motion in Alternatimus from Janet Foster of Concord, N.C. She asks for a simple rule on when to use "different from" and when to use "different than."
Wednesday, September 13, 2006 06:44:54 PM
WASHINGTON -- A long time ago, in a place far away, a free-spirited schoolboy attempted to exercise his rights of free speech. Informed that he had none, and rudely rebuffed for his effort, the impetuous lad grew up to become a newspaperman.
Sunday, September 10, 2006 08:19:51 PM
"The joy of life is variety," said the Samuel Johnson we remember. "Variety is the very spice of life," cribbed the William Cowper we forget. Every man or woman who loves or writes the English language will echo their thought. We are blessed with an infinity of similes.
Thursday, September 07, 2006 06:42:53 PM
On the Fourth of July in 2002, John Gilmore set out to fly from the West Coast to Washington, D.C. As things turned out, he never made the trip, mainly because the airline security folks wouldn't let him board a plane. He hasn't flown commercially from that day to this.
Sunday, September 03, 2006 08:18:39 PM
This is how the story in the good gray New York Times began:
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 08:00:15 PM
George W. Bush took the presidential oath on that January day in 2001, came home from the Hill, and promptly issued Executive Order No. 13,199. Thus he created, overnight, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
Sunday, August 27, 2006 08:17:21 PM
In his 18th sonnet, Will Shakespeare posed a question for his lady love. He asked: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? It was a nice thought. Then the bard bogged down. He left his simile unfinished, and more's the pity, for elsewhere he made many splendid comparisons, e.g., the serpent's tooth and the thankless child.
Sunday, August 27, 2006 08:17:21 PM
How about the noun "data." What's its number? Is it singular? Plural? If so, why so?
Wednesday, August 23, 2006 08:00:23 PM
The church views its overnight guests as God's children, fallen upon hard times. The city sees them as a bunch of bums who hang around all night and frighten the tourists away.
Sunday, August 20, 2006 08:16:23 PM
After President Clinton left office, said a contributor to The New Yorker magazine, he became "arguably" the most important politician in America. In a Page One obituary, The New York Times said that Lew Wasserman was "arguably" the most powerful Hollywood titan in the decades after World War II. Trevor Hoffman, a pitcher for the San Diego Padres, was "arguably" the best of his generation. So said a sportswriter in The Washington Post four years ago.
Thursday, August 17, 2006 11:21:20 AM
The facts in the case of Weldon Angelos are not in dispute: He really did sell 24 ounces of marijuana to an informant, and he really did carry a handgun when he did it.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006 08:26:58 AM
After a six-year absence, the Boy Scouts of America are back in the high court again. This time it is their brother Sea Scouts who are asking the Supreme Court for a lifeline. The case of Evans v. City of Berkeley is a close one.
Sunday, August 06, 2006 08:15:58 PM
A letter comes to hand from Maggie L., a budding author in Buffalo, N.Y., who aspires to write romantic novels. Not long ago, in composing a passage of extended dialogue, she tired of having her characters simply "say" something.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006 08:00:25 PM
Almost a century has passed since an eccentric New York millionaire, John Armstrong Chaloner, published his remarkable autobiography. Committed by his family to a mental hospital, he cleverly talked his way to freedom in Virginia. From his refuge, he asked, "Who's looney now?"
Sunday, July 30, 2006 08:16:07 PM
"If I wasn't in the middle of a hot flash," said the actress, "I'd believe I'm 16."
Sunday, July 30, 2006 08:16:07 PM
Anthony Tommasini, who reviews classical music for The New York Times, commented in March that most concert programs focus on masters "LIKE Bach, Haydn and Schumann," while others turn to musical theater figures "LIKE Irving Berlin." (My emphasis. A point approaches.)
Tuesday, July 25, 2006 08:00:10 PM
Having recently botched one opportunity to clarify the free speech rights of public employees, the Supreme Court now is looking at a second chance. The pending case stems from a nasty incident at a high school in upstate New York. It potentially affects public employees everywhere.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 08:23:34 PM
On a Tuesday morning five years ago, Stella Romanski set out to have lunch with her girlfriends. Now she's in the U.S. Supreme Court defending a judgment in her favor of $600,779. And 5 cents.
Sunday, July 16, 2006 08:16:07 PM
Hector had just won first prize for good sportsmanship at the Athens games. His envious cousin said, "I hope it doesn't effect his already swelled head." A neighbor added, "Well, it's bound to have some affect upon him."
Sunday, July 09, 2006 08:29:56 PM
This was a headline in USA Today on April 28: "Mass Transit Not an Option for All Drivers."
|
|
