Barry Popik and William Safire

[Elizabeth Gibbens]

Dear All:

Being busy and of an optimistic mind, I scanned the
subject line a couple of days ago and didn't read on,
but thought there must have been some collaboration in
a recent "On Language" column. Now that I've read a
bit, I must say that I agree with Fred's comments
below. Everyone with an interest in language has much
for which to thank Mr. Safire, myself included.

Elizabeth Gibbens



--- Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> I concur with Gerald Cohen that Barry Popik should
> be more temperate in
> his comments on this list about William Safire.
> Barry is one of the
> sharpest historical-lexicographical researchers
> ever.  It is true that Mr.
> Safire sometimes makes mistakes, and it is
> unfortunate that the Times
> appears to have a policy against printing
> corrections or, in all but a few
> cases, letters to the editor regarding the "On
> Language" columns.  But
> these facts do not justify Barry's extreme
> denunciations of Safire.
>
> William Safire, mistakes and all, is far more
> careful, scholarly and
> open-minded than other popular writers about
> language.  He has been a
> friend of the American Dialect Society, the
> Dictionary Society of North
> America and DARE.  He gives scholarship about the
> English language much
> more publicity than it would ever get otherwise.
>
> In the specific column that triggered Barry's most
> recent wrath, Safire's
> position is a plausible one.  I personally disagree
> with Safire's theory
> that the 1909 "Big Apple" citation should be
> considered the first use of
> the term, and am pretty much in accord with the
> Popik theory, but the
> argument for the 1909 first use is not entirely
> unreasonable.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE
> DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>   and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale
> University Press,
> Yale Law School
> forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu
> http://quotationdictionary.com
>
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