Safire's "Clean Yer Clock"

[Gerald Cohen]

    My item on "clean one's clock" appeared in _Comments on Etymology_
, vol. 25, no. 3, Dec. 1995, pp.1-2. It did not first appear as an
ads-l message. Allan Metcalf and Ron Butters have urged me to prepare
an index of _Comments on Etymology_ (which I edit), and if I had
followed their sage advice, Ms. Miller and Mr. Safire would have had
ready access to my "clean one's clock" item.
Time permitting (this summer?) I'll start on an index available for
dissemination.

    _Comments on Etymology_ is a series of working papers, and I have
been content to let it retain a low profile. But since its material
makes its way into both dictionaries and occasionally into public
discussion, it's clearly time to facilitate access to the
publication's contents.

     Meanwhile, both Mr. Safire and his assistants have shown me only
courtesy over the years, and they have given favorable publicity to
both Barry Popik's and my work (among others, of course). If Ms.
Miller would ever like access to whatever I know about a given topic,
she may contact me directly or via a query to ads-l, and I'll be
happy to respond.

---Gerald Cohen


At 12:06 PM -0500 2/5/02, Kathleen E. Miller wrote:
>Neither Mr. Cohen's nor Mr. Popik's work was "ignored" - I was unaware of
>it. I couldn't find it in the database and from the recent posts it seems
>I'm not the only one. Apologies if anyone is slighted - but I'm just one
>person here.
>
>If either one wishes to submit the work they have - I will gladly resubmit
>a research folder to WS with the updated information.
>
>Kathleen E. Miller
>Research Assistant to William Safire
>The New York Times
>
>
>At 03:07 AM 2/2/02 -0500, you wrote:
>>    I saw the title "Clean Yer Clock" for William Safire's column this
>>coming Sunday, and I was so happy that Gerald Cohen was going to be
>>mentioned again.  Cohen did work on "clean your clock."
>>    But...Jerry's work was never mentioned!
>>    I did some of the terms mentioned in the article, too.
>>    I don't want to destroy every one of Safire's columns again, and I'm
>>happy if his assistant posts here, but why ignore Jerry's work, too?