The Cunning Linguist

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

I'm back with more judgmental declarations about the way people speak. Why am I qualified to make these declarations? Because William Safire is dead and I'm not. Today's edition focuses on the work of a number of broadcasters who discuss basketball for a living and the pet phrase they misuse consistently. More to ...

The Cunning Linguist

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Now that William Safire has died, it seems the responsibility for commenting on this nation's usage of its unofficial "official" language falls to me. It's a daunting endeavor, but one I embark on nonetheless. The first linguistic issue to be addressed is our culture's recent over-reliance on one specific noun. That noun? DOUCHE.