European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 12, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Words amp with the to present William Safire on language i he Genius of democracies Quot wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in 1840, Quot is seen not Only in the great number of new words introduced but even More in the new ideas they sex to which Willa gather countered in 1936, Quot give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact Quot this debate can be pieced together from entries under Quot language Quot and Quot words in the Columbia dictionary of quotations Columbia University Pressa thousand Page compilation that is the most refreshing new quotation Book of the year. Writers need a general companion to Bartlett a familiar quotations one that draws More heavily on Modem sources of the 18,000 quotations in the Columbia 11,000 have not been anthologized before a and Are not familiar. We Are now into the umpteenth annual gifts of gab column the avidly awaited Sawy and invaluable guide to Holiday giving for word lovers. Why am i blurring my own stuff getting warmed up if you Are going to give one Book to one really literate Friend this Christmas let it be Fine print reflections on the writing Art by James j. Kilpatrick Andrews amp Mcmeni. Kilpo and i Are on opposite sides of the hopefully controversy he despairs at my permissiveness but his gentle essays on the changes in allusion and the vagaries of style Are classics and his Short takes on usage Are More Wise than Crotch Ety. Quot a whore May be naked but a mistress is nude. We Are talking Paul Dickson whose Early work included there Are alligators in the sewers and other american Credo brings a Nice Light touch to the lexicon of legislators with the Congress dictionary the ways and meanings of Capitol Hill written with Paul Clancy Wiley. In tip of Neillis foreword the former speaker of frs a poignant metaphor writing of the death of rep. Silvio Conte a i thought poor sit four belts did ring for the sounding of four Bells is the signal for final adjournment a but for those of us who spent a Good part of our lives in Congress it has another More solemn out with the old words in with the new fifty years among the new words edited by John Algeo Cambridge University press reprints the neologism tic articles in american speech Magazine. Lighten up How to talk to anybody about any thingy Leil Lowndes Citadel press is a Breezy guide to breaking the ice with people through their line of work. Juba to Jive a dictionary of african american Slang by Clarence major out next month from pen tip of Neill of tors a ringing foreword. Guin expanding his 1970 work gives us a Fine current source a and Assembly of other sources a of a facet of what used to be called Black English. Juba is the a slave name for leftovers from the White folks juice is defined As a payoff or Protection Money Given to the police to look the other Way in White political Lingo in be heard the same word used to mean a Power influence this was a Good year for word books. As the new year approaches word mavens must get started on a fresh Batch. As . Eliot put it in four quartets a for last years words belong to last years the new Yoffy times fall the news that fits As Long As its not about mailman Tony k0rnheiser it be of the great newspapers the los an Geles times new motto a please do not de offended by anything we say and we never meant to refer to anybody As a mailman has issued 19 pages of a guidelines on ethnic racial sexual and other identification Quot a this a other Quot class of identification presumably refers to something nobody has even thought of before when describing a person like shoe size so you la never again see in the . Times the phrase a the victim was a White female of austrian portuguese ancestry with feet like freaking these 19 pages Are so pc you can plug them into a phone Jack. Here Are some of the words that Are now banned because they Are considered insulting a babe Quot a indians Quot a queer Quot a a crazy and a holy i guess the column i recently submitted to the times will be rejected As it went a by Tony Kornheiser a if he were alive today and playing Outfield for the Cleveland indians babe Ruth would be Worth $20 million which suggests something rather queer about our cultural values not to mention the fact that if a Bunch of nuns were on a Bowling team they a be crazy not to Call themselves the holy that column is dead. Another word that was banned is from now on when the times refers to Elvis big hits say Heartbreak hotel hound dog and in the Community characterized by an economically disadvantaged ethnically homogeneous population. Though the times did not specifically mention it presumably a fat Jap Quot is also verboten. This phrase still makes me laugh 20 years later. Fat Jap a a a. Wasny to Spiro Agnew a funny Guy i mean for a big dumb greek a a lame is banned being offensive to people we used to Call a handicapped Quot also banned and we now Call a disabled Quot or More correctly some two word euphemism ending in we can to Call Frank Perdue a Turkey necked Cue Ball headed Geeze bag anymore. We say that or. Perdue is Quot Folli Cally and calendrical by i mourn the loss of a a lame its such a neat Way to describe someone like Aresenio Hall. A White trash Quot is also banned. And that a Fine because i think its going Over the line in a family newspaper when you read a sentence like a that fat to Bitch Roseanne Man she s White trash 1 mean you have to draw the line somewhere. Still she is Hindenburg an. Like they say in White men can to jump now referred to As 77iere May be anthropological differences that account for variation in personal vertical lift though these do not of course imply the kinetic inferiority of one ethnic group vis a vis another a Wyo mama is so fat when she Falls Down and Breaks her leg Gravy comes a mailman Quot was banned for sexism. A powwow Quot was banned for racism. Quot chinese fire Drill Quot was banned for Mon sodium glutamate so. And Quot Biddy Quot was banned because someone has a pole up his behind. Reasonable men a sorry a reasonable human organisms can debate whether Banning these words is appropriate i suppose. But Quot dutch treat no one relates this to dutch people. It would be like the scotch objecting to scotch tape because it implied that they Are transparent and Sticky. Are Welsh people really stereotyped by another banned word a Welsh Era nobody even knows the derivation of to begin with they think its spelled and so they think its about grape juice. They banned a deaf what Are they Craz a. They banned Quot Eskimo presumably the times will refer to a inuit they banned a Wasp Quot forcing Clever writers to resort to knowing descriptions like a pasty Middle aged folks with Small pinched faces who Wear silly Bright Green pants festooned with patterns of Mallard ducks and eat dry tasteless Well done meats on White bread with the crusts neatly removed arid Are generally so insular that they done to even open their Mouths when they they banned a jew As a honestly jew Ever hear of such a stupid thing a thick Quot and Quot hillbilly Quot Are banned obviously the times wants to cozy up to Clinton. But a a bumpkin is of. I await the sitcom the Beverly Hills bumpkins. Lets take a mailman Quot out now. But you can substitute a Well tailored code phrase like a disgruntled maniac with an automatic weapon and a Bloodthirsty for his her its former colleagues Quot similarly should you want to circumvent the pejorative code phrase a dinner City a use a place where White people Roll up their car windows and lock their doors and stare straight ahead with their hands on the wheel in a death grip and they must decide whether to give the Squeegee Man a Quarter or simply run the red hey they re just words folks. Relax. Its context and delivery that makes the difference All the difference. That a Why Richard Pryor can use the word Quot Nigger Quot in his comedy act but Ted Dan son can to. And Why Jackie Mason can Tell jokes about jews and Helmut Kohl can to. And Why Flat out Banning so called offensive words from a newspaper is absurd. To paraphrase my friends at the Era a words done to Hurt people. People Hurt people. The Washington Post a Page 24 sunday december 12. 1993
