European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 28, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Words wit More notes after the fiddling with Clinton s inaugural William Safire on language hat you Call subject verb Dis agreement is frequent and justified when it serves the Subtle purpose of suggesting the Unity of two ideas writes Jacques Warzun a member of on language s Board of octogenarian mentors Golbom objecting to my nitpicking of William Jefferson Clinton s inaugural address. Your very example of toil and sweat sends us is such a nuance for obviously the sweat is one with the toil. A plural verb would imply two sep Arate causes propelling us. In the second example will and conscience your objection is sound because you arc Able to show that the phrase refers to two distinct situations. In the each in our own Way you Are entirely right professor Barzun continues setting me up for the kill but might have pointed out that when each precedes the verb the plural follows each is not Al ways singular. Hence the tendency to slip into error. But when you reprove each other a wrong for one another you go against a Iago and logic both. Each the other surely will take in a crowd in pain As quickly As one another see Fowler Modem in Glish usage i Don t see Fowler much these Days. But surely the Man in the House of intellect cannot object o my Purist criticism of president Clinton s use of raised when the proper verb is reared i agree that raised for reared lacks elegance. But it is perfectly Clear and no Blunder. Indeed there Are contexts in which raised is called for bom on a rundown farm and raised on pork and Beans and hard work leaned would pfc silly Here would t it finally writes Golbom s Barzun in a parthian not a parting shot in disallowing nor after a negative you arc Only expressing a modern preference. In the 19th Century the opposite was generally preferred. "g.b. Shaw almost invariably used nor where we use or. Swift had done the same and there you have the two greatest masters of Plain  ordinarily i would raise an Eyebrow at the place ment of Only in Are Only expressing but i think it s a trap. Heads up from spooks Senate investigations churn up testimony that re Veals the language not As it is written with much of the blood and flavor squeezed out but As it is spoken by real people while squirming. The staff of the Senate select committee on intelligence has Given aficionados of colloquial Lingo As Well As Stu dents of synonymy a Nice Bunch of citations in its re cent report on the involvement of our spooks in the Ira Gate affair. The Deputy director of Central intelligence Wil Liam Studeman went to his  Robert Gates to in Studeman s words give the director a Heads what of the agreement in the president s opener up that attorney general Barr might be calling  Heads up As every hard hat knows is an interjection the warning cry of construction workers on High scaffolding to anyone who might be strolling j5y, about to be struck by a dropped Hammer. It replaced a longer expression immortalized Ai the sobriquet of look out below Bernstein a Lej Dendary new York piano mover of Weissburger mov ing and storage co. In most up to Date dictionaries bends up is listed As an , extending the old shouted warning to a meaning of Alert resource Ful As in playing Heads up baseball. But the Senate testimony shows it used As a noun and when native speakers Stop to think of it that s the most frequent current usage. To give someone a Heads up is to Issue something less sinister than a warning or a tip off closer to an Alert than to an alarm. Tha new York limes Clinton shows How to be taxing --., a. 9. I a in just 30 Days Tony Kornheiser there is an old joke about the wife who complained to her husband that she was tired of living in their dump of an apart ment and she wanted to move to a More expensive apartment. One night the Hus band Canic Home and told her you got your wish Honey. We re going to live in a More expensive apartment. The landlord just raised our  congratulations to everyone making Over $30,. The landlord just raised your rent. How bout that state of the Union address did you Ever Sec anybody get so Many standing ovations without singing Studway to heaven can you be Lieve Al Gore the Guy can t even Chip in time Gore is so wooden he does t take a Shower he gets Rufin Ischii Clinton proposed about 7,000 new Aid programs All of which were roundly received and at Trie very end mentioned he might not have enough Cash on hand to buy every american Man woman and child a new automatic garage opener and so maybe every body whose Job does t entail asking would you like some Fries with that ought to tighten their belts until their behinds burst. Economics is a complicated highly technical Sci ence. And the Clinton tax hike has Subtle intricate provisions. In order to understand it i went to a vet eran professional business writer whom i will Call Paul because that s his name. Paul described Clinton s four step tax request this Way 1. We owe a lot really a lot of Money. 2. We need More Money. 3.-you have Money. 4. Give it to us. I mentioned to Paul that i recollected How during the Campaign Clinton said the tax hike be confined to people who earned More than $200,000 a year and then after the election but before the inauguration Clinton revised that a Little and said it would affect people who earned More than $100,000 a year and Here we Are with the plan in front of us and now he s Down to people making More than $30,000 a year which Means just about everybody with a Job even Sally Jessy Raphael and Paul the business writer said there is a complicated technical eco nomic term to describe what Clinton was doing. It is called lying " he said. I wonder if press Secretary Dee Dee Dee Dee Myers would Call it that. Seriously does Dee Dee strike you As a proper name for a press Secretary Dee Dee is a name for a car hop. It s not even sophisticated enough for a Bowler Clinton was emphatic about reducing health care costs i m for that. Start chopping those exorbitant doctors Cesi take the Gross profits out of Medicine. Make America like China where you can make As much Money driving a cab As being a doctor so when you notice a suspicious mole on your Back you May As Well pull into a Jiffy lube. I understand it s time for sacrifice. So like the president i am cutting my staff by 25 percent. 1 recently fired my daughter. This Way i save the $5 weekly allowance i gave her. And i avoid the embarrassing inquiry As to Why i did t pay her social Security taxes. We might want to look at How the Clinton administration is going so far beyond the photogenic Rainbow of his Cabinet including Robert Reich and Donna Shalala whose jobs it seems Are to stand near the president and scream a plane a plane so far the highlight of Clinton s presidency came when he blew the sax at the inaugural Ball. Since then he has just been blowing it. I Don t mean to suggest As  predicted that Bill Clinton is waffling but the new construction on the South Lawn that everyone thinks is a jogging track it s not it s a griddle. It s the b.s., stupid take Haiti. During the Campaign Clinton said America was still a melting pot and he d Welcome. Haitians to this country. Now they Are turning haitians away with pitchforks. Haitians Clinton sex. Claimed. I thought you said asians take Gays in the military. During the Campaign Clinton said that the Day he became president there d be so Many Gays in the military they d have to rename the mess Hall the neat  now he has backed off that. Now he s moving with ahem All de liberate Speed and seeking consensus. There Are no new Gays in the military yet. The consensus seems to be that there will be Gays in the military just As soon As Belgium explodes. We know what a fiasco finding an attorney general was. Zoe Baird was an interesting Choice to Safe guard individual liberties a $510,000-a-year corporate lawyer harbouring two illegal aliens. Then came Kimba of he you know i Wood. After those two went Down the tidy Clinton assured peo ple that he was t insistent on a woman and then picked Janet Reno who s 6-foot-7, dunks with both hands and canoes to work. If she in t confirmed where does Clinton go next Doogie Howser s mom he s Here 30 Days and he has already raised taxes. He tells us Don t Stop thinking about tumor Row us of. What s coming tomorrow creator Syndicate Page 24 sunday february 28, 1993