European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 11, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 the stars and stripes wednesday november 11.1987 columns the legacy of Ambrose Berce by Andy Rodney the word casualty Means someone who is injured by Aci ii Tel and inc great Ihnn Sunry writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce objected to having in applied to soldiers a War because he said. They weren t wounded by Accident they were wounded by Tho enemy on purpose. Bierce disappeared Inlo Mexico in 1913 and was never heard from again. One of the literary legacies he left is a Little Book of words called write ii in it by crts gives hundreds of examples of misused words and phrases. Edward Cannon and his son Richard found an old copy of the Book and they be re published in. It s fun to look through and i Learned a Tot Reading in although i m suspicious of people who nitpick the English language to death. Did you know the word Sid Burn is wrong thai s what we Call the hair that grows Down the Side of a Man s face if he does t shave in off. In sounds As though in has something la do with Side bul it does t. We should be using the word bum Side not the hair growing Down Over the Check Bone was named after a civil War general named am Brose e. Burnside who wore his that Way. I la never say sideburns again without remembering thai in is wrong. Bierce says we misuse we usually mean aspirant when we re talking Aboul someone who wants to gel elected to office. One is not a Candi Date unlit formally named or nominated by a Conven Tion he says. La s surprising How contemporary Bierce j comments about inc English language Are considering Hal he wrote them 7i years ago. For example he makes iwo comments i ought to remember when i m writing in the phrase just exactly Bierce Points out nothing is gained in strength nor precision by using the word just Omil it and make it simply exactly it s Good advice i often find myself overworking the word Bierce a so says we use the article the More than is. Necessary and he gives examples. In the sentence King Are not under the control of the saw he would Omil the both times and make the Seni enee read Kings Are not under control of if you Start looking at Al the Hes in what you write you realize a lot of them could come out. I Don t agree with everything in the Little Book and if Birrer were still alive he would probably have changed his mind or softened up a Little too. For example he does t approve of using the word so for True he Wouten l Sav it in t he d insist on it in t i think so ii useful and of to use. Bierce also objects to the use of the word fix to mean the first definition of the word Fin in my dictionaries is still to make firm or secure fasten bul in seems to me fix the Way we use it to mean repair is a Good word and we ought to continue using it. Bierce does t approve of using people for per to speak of a Small number of persons As people is incorrect he says. He objects to run meaning manage. He would t write she runs the he dislikes saying he s that kind of a Man instead of he s that kind of you can see Ambrose Bierce had a lot of hang ups. It must have been Tough when he Sal Down to write with his Quill pen to avoid All of them. It s fun to read this Little Book and it s educational because it makes you More aware of the English Lan Guage but the Best thing about our language my been its ability to grow and Lake a new words and new uses for old words. Schoolteachers and grammarians Don t have to stand at the door to keep the bad ones out if new words or new uses for old words Don t work americans will get them out of the language simply by not using them. C try uni Rukhl a Vui Steed had a Way with words by Dick West Washington up however much i hate to disagree with a member of Congress silting standing reclining or in some other posture of servitude my favor Ite congressional prac Milioner of the interlocking or Over lapping cliche was rep. Tom Speed an Oklahoma demo crat who once said. The chickens come Home to Roost when you get Down to the meal of the hear hear if that s not telling it like it is i Don t know what Bromide fusion docs qualify. So much for rep. Morris Udall a Ariz and his new Book too funny to be admittedly i Haven t read the whole thing but in the published excerpts i saw there was no mention of Udall could have overlooked him in any Dis Cussion of political Malaprop isms is beyond me. Steed certainly served in Congress Long enough to overlap Udall a bit. As to whether his Pollica service was of Fth cliche variety i leave to others to determine. A couple of colleagues i told of Steed s Malaprop piss recalled How talkative he was. Clearly he could. Not have maintained that Pace without rubbing two or More cliches together occasionally anyway Udall who once ran for the White House and whose brother was a member of the Kennedy cab inet has been around Long enough to recognize a Politi Cal Malaprop ism when he sees one. However As he Haj irn ply demonstrated a presiden tial candidate does t have to enter the 1988 Campaign to provide a barrel of laughs. All that is necessary to la one s laugh quotient is to be a regular Reader of the congressional record. I Don t recall the circumstances under which Steed made his historic utterance. But he had a Way with words. Goa Kwic 5a1sjw comics. He Wien Nen Spieks them bigger. 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