A little highbrow pleasure for me is William Safire's "On Language" column in the New York Times Magazine. Sometimes he's boring, but this week I thought he was particularly on. So may I direct you there momentarily? He's much better than I am, so I urge you to read his piece in its unadulterated form.

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Dear readers, Today's blog post is in memory of my grandfather, who in spite of being a rather difficult, complicated fellow, was also a genius when it came to language. He put a lot of value in creativity, but also smart use of words. Born in Eastern Europe, and coming to the US after surviving Auschwitz, he spoke 7 languages and had a long career in advertising. Stealing art supplies from the art department from said ad agency, he set up a make-shift studio in the basement for us grandkids.

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