Clements & Popik in N.Y. Times

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:54 PM -0800 12/6/03, vida morkunas wrote:
>Congratulations Sam and Barry !
>
>Even more reason to read the NY Times tomorrow
>
>cheers !
>
>Vida.
>vidamorkunas at telus.net
>

When you do, note Safire's reference (the column appears on p. 30) to
the latter as "The growling etymologist Barry Popik", with no further
explanation.  Assuming this isn't a very covert reference to some
work of Barry on "growler", it strikes me as a somewhat private
allusion to Barry's style, presumably motivated by the fact that
Safire himself has not infrequently served as the growlee.  Sam, on
the other hand, is identified neutrally as "the philologist Sam
Clements", sans modification.

larry