From Library Journal
This latest collection of Safire's (Quoth the Maven, LJ 8/93) internationally syndicated columns on language will appeal to language buffs and mavens. How did it come to be that one kind of bubba dispenses chicken soup while another is a Southern football player? What does it mean to "cock a snook"? In the language of diplomacy, how do contact, dialogue, and exchange differ? Though a political conservative, Safire is a linguistic liberal, accepting, though sometimes reluctantly, that language evolves. "It's me" sounds okay. Since his chapters can be read randomly, readers less fascinated by D.C.-speak than Safire can skip those sections. Safire often seems star-struck: Charlton Heston called to ask him whether "larger than life" implies "unreal"; "Jacques" [Barzun] dropped him a note commenting on the word denounce. This is a book that will appeal to those who love "the language dodge." (Index not seen.) [For another view of Safire, see "Safire Reads LJ," Inside Track, LJ 7/94, p. 72.-Ed.]-Peter Dollard, Alma Coll. Lib., Mich.
--Peter Dollard, Alma Coll. Lib., Mich.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The best part of Safire's collected columns is the responses from readers that he selects to publish: the corrections from the "Gotcha Gang," the erudite explications from professorial types, the defenses from public officials, etc. Not that Safire's nationally syndicated columns aren't worth reading again and again, but printed with reactions from his fans and critics they are even better. Here, for instance, you'll find Safire's exquisite meditations on summer reading, whether it's to be done "on the beach," "at the shore," or, in New Jersey, "down the shore." Many other colloquialisms, common expressions, and mangled terms are taken apart, examined, and put to use in witty, instructive ways. Denise Perry Donavin
From Kirkus Reviews
Safire charms yet again with his lively interest in our language. ``Norma Loquendi,'' that fickle lass whose name the author translates as ``the everyday voice of the native speaker,'' is the title character of this eighth book to come from Safire's ``On Language'' column in the New York Times Magazine (Quoth the Maven, 1993, etc.). As in earlier volumes, there is a jumble of topics unified by force of sheer curiosity; for example, when Safire encounters the phrase ``unshirted hell,'' he is prompted to ask, ``Just what is this form of hell, and where does it come from?''- -and off he goes. Questions can also come from readers; one, for instance, wondered about the origins of the word ``tickety-boo.'' This, Safire learns, was in use at least by 1963, when a group of 50 housewives played ``Everything Is Tickety-Boo'' on pots, pans, and kazoos for ``The Ted Mack Amateur Hour.'' Sometimes such curiosity leads to speculation, as when Safire describes Shakespeare's ``screw your courage to the sticking place'' as a carpentry metaphor. His casual comment set readers thinking, and we see some results: a letter from Guilford, Conn., counters with the idea that the image refers to turning a violin peg, and one from Brooklyn, N.Y., suggests that it might come from archery. Safire is not above attempting to impose order on linguistic chaos, but as often as not his efforts seem to be made with tongue in cheek, as when he proposes ``Safire's Law of Nation-Naming: You get only one crack at a new name in each century.'' Good luck to him on that one. Those who believe language is a delight as well as a necessity will happily while away the hours meandering through these pages. (Illustrations, not seen) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
