August 25, 2004

Is “Both” Really Necessary?

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In a news story on NPR this morning, a reporter read the following sentence (or something close to it): “Both of the planes disappeared with...
July 5, 2004

Independence Day Thought

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Driving home from an Independence Day party and a subsequent outing to view the fireworks sponsored by Mt. Lebanon Township, I reflected on ...
June 28, 2004

Senate Indecency

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Permit me to point out an irony that has been noticed by others, but which is simply too good not to mention. Last week, Vice President Dick...
June 24, 2004

Surprising Old Usages

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I have been reading Richard H. Schmidt’s wonderful book Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality . Schmidt describes the...
December 15, 2003

Ground Zero Memorial

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In a recent essay, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd attacked the eight finalist designs for a Ground Zero memorial. The pretty designs...
December 13, 2003

Back Again

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I knew that I hadn’t written anything here in a long time, but I hadn’t realized that it had been four months! Actually, I had begun writin...
July 31, 2003

Church and State in the Bush Administration

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In a rare news conference yesterday, President Bush declared his opposition to the notion of gay marriage. He explained that his administrat...
July 16, 2003

Disconnect

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It becomes increasingly clear that the Republican Party has a philosophy that is accepted by its acolytes, unencumbered, as Tom and Ray Magl...
June 20, 2003

More Ambiguity

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I recently wrote an essay on ambiguity introduced into sentences because of the absence of commas (see “ Commas ”). I think this has made me...
June 12, 2003

Cannot

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I often see people write “can not” where they actually mean “cannot.” I have tended to dismiss this as a spelling error, but a sentence I en...
June 5, 2003

Repartee

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Seldom is conversation in real life as witty as it is in art. Occasionally, however, exchanges do occur naturally that deserve to be savored...
May 23, 2003

Thought Experiment Redux

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An answer has now been provided to the question I raised in “ Thought Experiment ” of February 24, 2003. NASA officials had insisted that th...
May 22, 2003

Random Thoughts on Iraq

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The U.N. Security Council is about to vote on removing sanctions on Iraq. The resolution on the table has been revised to make it more accep...
May 15, 2003

Constituent Services

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Three weeks ago, I sent e-mail messages to my congressman, to my own senators, and to Republican Senators Snowe and Voinovich, who were obje...
May 13, 2003

Chicken or Egg?

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I find myself constantly asking what has happened to the Democrats. Where is the Loyal Opposition? Is everyone in the party brain dead? Do D...
May 12, 2003

Bucking the Odds

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President George W. Bush’s dramatic tail-hook landing on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln for a “victory” speech has been much c...
May 7, 2003

All New

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Have you noticed that television networks have taken to describing upcoming episodes of their shows as “all new”? (For example, “an all new ...
April 26, 2003

Incest

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While writing an essay on Senator Rick Santorum’s recent comments on the legal status of homosexuality and other sexual practices (see “ Ric...
April 15, 2003

The Next Battle for Iraq

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The first of many promised meetings to discuss the future polity of Iraq was held today in Ur. The U.S. government has not yet released a li...
April 14, 2003

Looting

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In light of the administration’s stated intention to use the infrastructure of the former government of Iraq as a basis for an interim gover...