Coming to Terms
Published on 4. January 2012
402 pages
978-0-307-80059-6 (ISBN)
Description
When William Safire delineates the difference between misinformation and disinformation or "distances himself" from clichés, people sit up and take notice. Which is not to say that Safire's readers always take the punning pundit at his word: they don't, and he's got the letters to prove it. Among the entries in Coming to Terms, this all-new collection of Safire's "On Language" columns, you'll read the repartee of Lexicographic Irregulars great and small. John Haim of New York sets in concrete what properly to call a cement truck, while Charlton Heston challenges an interpretation of Hamlet's "to take arms against a sea of troubles" and Gene Shalit passes along his favorite Yogi Berra-ism. Bringing them all together are dozens of Safire's most illuminating and witty columns, from "Right Stuffing" to "Getting Whom." When William Safire comes to terms, there's never a dull moment.
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Other editions
Additional editions
William Safire
Coming to Terms
Book
01/1994
Random House Value Publishing
€25.51
Article exhausted; check different version
William Safire
Coming to Terms
Book
06/1991
Doubleday Books
€43.00
Article exhausted; check different version
Person
William Safire, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, has been a newspaper reporter, a White House speechwriter, a lexicographer, an anthologist, and a bestselling novelist. In addition to his weekly column, "On Language," for The New York Times Magazine, his primary post is political columnist for The New York Times. Safire is the author of The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time: Wit and Wisdom from the Popular Language Column in the New York Times Magazine; No Uncertain Terms: More Writing from the Popular "On Language" Column in The New York Times Magazine; Take My Word For It; and many more.
Content
- Intro
- Other Books by This Author
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- The Gotcha! Gang Strikes Again
- Advise and Repent
- Airheads
- And So On
- Arrogance of Power
- Bankuage
- Besides, the Wench Is Dead
- Beware the W-Word
- Biden v. Bimbo et al.
- Bravo Zulu!
- Brother, Can You Spare a Question?
- By the Beautiful Sea
- Calling Dr. Spin
- Carry a Big One
- Character Issue
- Class Cleavage
- Cockamamie
- Contra-Temps
- Couch Potatoes and Lounge Lizards
- Dam That Tinker
- Different Strikes
- The Dirtiest Word
- Disinformation Prep School
- Don't Make Me Blush
- Don't Touch That Dial
- Dry My Bier
- The Earth Makes Its Move
- Effective Immediately
- The Erroneous Eagle and the Cross-Eyed Bear
- Falling in Love with Luv
- Fawn Hall's Shredding, Ek-setera
- Fewer Bursts, Less Bursting
- Finding's Losings
- Flopping the Flip
- Future King's English
- Get Me Rewrite
- Getting Whom
- Gifts for Glossolaliacs
- Gimme a Breakpoint
- Glossary of a Scandal
- Gondoliers of Metaphor
- Good as a Mile
- Goons and Ginks and Company Finks
- The Gruntled Employee
- Hail to the CEO
- Here I Sit, No Warts at All
- Hermen Eutic's Original Intent
- Hits and Errors
- How Strait the Gate
- I am Appalled
- I'll Stand Alone
- In a Muddles
- In a New York Minute
- Invasion of the Arbs
- Jiminy Cricket Sings Again
- The Juddering Juice Shtick
- Just Routine Tests
- Know Ye by These Presents
- Let It Snow
- Let Us Distance Ourselves
- Long Time No See
- Loop the Loop
- Madam, I'm Adam
- Marxian Plagiarism
- Means Test for End
- Meet My Whatsit
- Miss Feasance of 1987
- The Modifiers of Mother
- Mr. Bonaprop
- Ms.-ing Word
- Murder Board at the Skunk Works
- Narcissus, Absorb Thyself
- Nine Yards to Imbroglio
- No Excuses
- No Heavy Lifting
- Nothing to Lose but Our Keynes
- Notional Timeline
- Not to Mention Prolepsis
- Nyet Problemy on Snow Jobs
- Of Baths and Garters
- Of Ducks and Men
- Off the Flaw
- Oh, Fudge
- Operation Not-So-Staunch
- Outside the Quoteway
- The Penumbra of Desuetude
- Phantom of the Phrases
- Piece of Work
- The Player's the Thing
- Plug That Nickel
- Poetic Allusion Watch
- Love That Dare
- The PAWs That Refresh
- Politicians' Main Squeeze
- Pre-Option Play
- Quants Ain't Quaint
- Recuse My Dust
- Redundadundadundant
- Right Stuffing
- Rooms with Words
- Lexi-Klepts
- Ruling the Jet Set
- Running the Traps
- Running to Daylight
- Semiotic Yoks
- The Setting Agenda
- Setup, Trumped-Up, but not Framed-Up
- Simon Didn't Say
- Smiles of a Summit Night
- Smoke and Mirrors
- Somewhat Vulgar
- Spaced-Out Precision
- Spellbound
- The Spook Speaks
- State of Ploy
- Subliminal Score
- Supine Nonconcurrence
- Surgeon General's Warning
- Tayee, Kemo Sabe
- The Telltale Adverb
- That Secret Desire
- Third-Commandment Blues
- Tongue-Speak
- Too Clever by Three Quarters
- To the Buck-Naked Eye
- Tough Medicine, Bitter Choices
- True Believer
- Useful Idiots of the West
- Weather Report: Yucky
- Weenies of the World, Unite!
- Weigh to Go
- What Happened to the Market?
- "When I Make a Mistake ."
- When "No Plans" Means "Get Ready"
- Who is an "American"?
- Who Shot John?
- Who Steals My Per Se
- Will Grammar Survive?
- Winsome, Lose Some
- With All Deliberate Vulgarity
- The Word's the Thing
