Safire Watch (continued)

[Tim Frazer]

If other people want to buy ad space in Safire's paper to air Barry's
complaints, I might contribute.  (However, the urge to do this comes from my
dark side -- to be honest, it would be less to do sg. for Barry than to have
a good fight.  So maybe it's not a good impulse.)
----- Original Message -----
From: <Bapopik at AOL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2001 8:05 AM
Subject: Safire Watch (continued)


>    William Safire plagiarizes the OED once again.
>    In this week's "On Language" column, he mentions two quotations in
discussing "sidekick."  Both can be found in the OED.  Safire never mentions
the OED.
>    One quotation from O. Henry ("Billy was my _side-kicker_ in New York")
Safire identifies as 1904.  The OED has 1903.  Also, in the OED, the term
does not have italics.
>    He can't even plagiarize correctly!
>    Safire takes another dig at the family Bush (yes, politics in a
Language column) by stating that Bush the Elder liked to quote Woody Allen
as saying "Ninety percent of success is showing up."  No Bush citations are
provided.
>    Safire called Woody Allen, who says he said "80%."  Safire doesn't
reveal that this "80%" is nothing new.  Even the awful ENCARTA BOOK OF
QUOTATIONS (2000) has "Eighty percent of success is showing up."
>    Most troubling, of course, is that Safire's assistant came on the list,
got a citation from Fred Shapiro, and has used it in this week's column.
His assistant won't even respond to me about joining the ADS for free.
>    Again, I ask Elizabeth Phillips to join the ADS for free.  Again, I ask
her correct the errors that William Safire made of my work.  She owes it to
me and to this organization.
>    She used us!
>    I demand (as I have for a mere NINE YEARS now) Safire to respond.