{"id":137,"date":"2009-09-28T21:13:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T21:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=137"},"modified":"2009-09-28T21:13:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T21:13:00","slug":"the-pickwickian-quibbler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=137","title":{"rendered":">The Pickwickian Quibbler"},"content":{"rendered":"

><\/p>\n

I have just learned that William Safire has passed away.  <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Telegraph<\/em> describes him:
\u201dApplauded by his peers as \u2018a Pickwickian quibbler,\u2019 he ran a gimlet eye down the solecisms, gaffes, weaselly euphemisms, jargon and sonorous drivel of political discourse and pounced with the restrained relish of a talented linguist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since I am passionate about linguistics, I was a long time fan of his column \u2018On Language\u2019 in the NYTimes Magazine<\/em>. Who will now fill his shoes?<\/p>\n

Do you remember his phrase, \u201cthe nattering nabobs of negavitism?\u201d Such creativity! <\/p>\n

I never followed his politics, but his use and abuse of language was priceless\u2026.<\/p>\n

This morning I finished The Elegance of the Hedgehog<\/em>.  I hope there are many others reading this at the moment, so I won\u2019t say anything except<\/em> that The Chicago Sun-Times\u2019<\/em> review was spot-on for me: \u201cThis story, like all great tales, will break your heart, but it will also make you realize\u2014or remember\u2014that sometimes the pain is worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The garden is calling for attention, but I do not think I will get there today\u2026.\"garden<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

> I have just learned that William Safire has passed away.  Today\u2019s Telegraph describes him: \u201dApplauded by his peers as \u2018a Pickwickian quibbler,\u2019 he ran a gimlet eye down the solecisms, gaffes, weaselly euphemisms, jargon and sonorous drivel of political discourse and pounced with the restrained relish of a talented linguist.\u201d Since I am passionate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}