gam@proper.UUCP (Gordon Moffett) (06/20/84)
@
I noticed a new book by William Safire has come out in the bookstores:
"I Stand Corrected (more 'On Language')", $19.95, New York Times Books.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Safire, he writes a weekly
column for the NYTimes ('On Language'), syndicated elsewhere, with
lively discussions about the state and usage of English, particularly
the usage and origins of words and phrases. Unlike other such writers,
Safire doesn't take himself too seriously, he's not a pompous ass
about "how English SHOULD be", and his views on the subject are
relativistic:
"I am my own Final Authority," he says, "... You don't accept that?
You prefer to think it through yourself, do your own research,
arrive at your own conclusion about whether it should be 'out the
window' or 'out of the window'? Wonderful! You have just become
your own Final Authority."
This book, like the two previous, are excerpts from his columns
with letters from his readers (which are sometimes more interesting
than he is!).
--
Gordon A. Moffett
{ hplabs!nsc, decvax!sun!amd, ihnp4!dual } !proper!gam