Jesse, spread all over the Times

[Baker, John]

        Some interesting comments, quite relevant to this list, from the
review of the Webster biography:

Kendall marshals a wide range of evidence to argue that Webster suffered
from what we now call obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, from
Webster's own diaries (where Webster regularly mentioned his "extreme
depression," "anxiety" and "nervous affections") to the monomaniacal
attention he paid to subjects that he found engaging (he would count the
number of houses in each city he visited in his travels). While such
after-the-fact diagnoses may seem overly influenced by modern
perspectives, Webster's personality traits are entirely familiar to
anyone acquainted with an actual lexicographer. . . . The skills
required to do this kind of linguistic work have their costs.


        I'm no lexicographer, but my wife sometimes tells me that I have
OCD.  I tell her that I'm missing the "disorder" component.


John Baker




-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Laurence Horn
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 10:27 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Jesse, spread all over the Times

First, this excellent review of a biography of Noah Webster from
Sunday's Book Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/books/review/book-review-the-forgotten
-founding-father-noah-websters-obsession-and-the-creation-of-an-american
-culture-by-joshua-kendall.html

and then three days later, a piece--
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/books/john-donohue-taps-male-cooks-in-
man-with-a-pan-book-review.html
--on a new book (_MAN WITH A PAN: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who
Cook for Their Families_, by John Donoghue) that features an essay by
Jesse along with others by (almost) equally prominent SNAGs
("Sensitive New Age Gluttons") like Stephen King and Mario Batali.
It fills us in on recent developments in Jesse's love life and
culinary adventures, including his attempts to deal with with the
dread "sexually transmitted eating disorder".  (Sounds like fun.)

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org