European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 16, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Figuring out contradistinction nubile morph William Safire on language x of m glad you asked that question presi i h Dent Clinton said at a news conference in contradistinction to the one you asked right what s the difference Between distinction and contradistinction1 contradistinction is a convenient and emphatic Way Jacques Bazzuri says of pointing out the Dif Ference one has in mind when using words that Are close in meaning or commonly confused i mean knowledge in contradistinction to information distinction by itself does not permit the use of to and requiring Between instead it seems to Call for an sex Plantation of what the difference actually is i have. In mind the distinction Between knowledge and in formation All right Tellus what it is. The other construction using contradistinction needs no accounting speaker s while i had Barzun s attention As a member of the on language Board of octogenarian mentors he feels an obligation to Respondi asked about the word nubile Why does this word for Marriageable apply Only to females the sex is deep rooted the latin Nuberee Means to take As a husband not to take As a wife and Barzun traces the etymology a Ste further. The historical reason nubile applies Only to girls lie says is that Only they wore a veil at the marriage ceremony tubes equals Cloud. The practical linguistic reason is that the connotation has Al ways been capable of bearing a child the word Marks the Point at any age where physical development is perceived As adequate to that purpose. It follows that nubile boys sounds facetious nobility carries an essentially passive morphine time investigate the use of the word morph As a verb urges rabbi Carl Perkins of Needham mass. In the phrase it s morphine time used by the charac ters on the Power dangers television program i have the sense that it Means to transform " Morphe in greek Means form preceded by Meta denoting change we had metamorphosis which Means change of physical form a word the first Century latin poet Ovid used in its Piru As the title of his legendary work afr Unver a Norph still a noun was used by Sci i a 1950s to mean a variant Fortis of Art an incl species like a resident of the i Lanet of the tapes. But along came the computer and he won was. Transformed into a verb meaning one shape to another by computer graphics in the definition Given by John and Adele Al co Ivi Ameri can speech. Characters also morph in the popular children s television series mighty morphine f us or rangers. In this live action fantasy teen agers an r in formed. Into super heroes empowered with the Mac nth of prehistoric creatures. V the tech nil us is also becoming a Force in Advertis ing. A recent Washington Post article use of computer imaging in commercials was headlined aforp/7 for the Money which plays in the Oli Moil Fields. A -.,. The god of dreams is not finished with this word extending the computer graphics sense of tie verb Roxanne Roberts covering the miss America pageant in Atlantic City for the Washington Post wrote now in its 74th year this has. part political nominating convention part triathlon and part Star search / computer literati so far ahead of Tler rest of us that they Are prepared to Pun on senses unfamiliar to the cube stupids will occasionally ask inner nettled Anonymous correspondents of thai Means male or female but is surely a play on Yort times put bluntly men ahead of women by a foot Tony Kornheiser my Friend Nancy recently had minor foot surgery and afterwards was advised to stay off her feet for a a few Days her household Foo Supply dwindled until one night she had Only a can of soup for dinner. The next Day she phoned her husband at work and mentioned there was nothing in the House to eat. No problem her husband said. I la eat out. This provoked one of the most common fights be tween men and women the fight about women never coming out and saying what they want. Or if you re a woman the fight about How men Are totally insensitive louts her husband reacted like any Man would with selflessness and sympathy. He heard her say there s no food in the House. He saw she was Laid up with a bad foot. He did t want her to go to any trouble. So he said. Honey i la eat out. Presumably if there was anything left Over he d bring it Home for her. Seems reasonable to me. But i am a Man. Women Are not brought up to say what they want. They Only hint at it. But it s stupid to hint to men. Men Don t understand subtlety. That s Why they read books by Tom Clancy. Men Are like mules. If you want them to move Forward you have to hit them in the behind with a Hammer. After All these years How could women not under stand this. L Yvo Oman Are not Only too Subtle but far too de manding for example when you re dropping them Oft at a movie so they can buy tickets while you Park just Basel Switzerland the car most women actually expect you to come to a Complete Stop to let them out i m sure most men feel the world would be a bet Ter place if everyone thought like a Man. Fig ured women believed this too. I figured women would actually like to be men. Amazingly though it turns out they Don to i expressed astonishment at this and suggested to my Friend Trace that there were Many advantages to being a Man not the least of which was the ability to drink directly out of the milk Carton. She said and i m quoting Here you re a dope you re an idiot. Tracee also worries that her name spelled that Way is too identifiable,.so for the remainder of the col. Urn i shall Call h r Tracy to protect her privacy. Anyway Tracy s position Flabb erasts me As i personally can think of Only one reason for a Man to be a woman and that is to play from the red tees. Recently Tracy who is 5 feet tall bought a 27 Inch to. The store loaded it into the trunk of her car. The Box was too big and heavy for her to lift. So when she got Home she faced a problem getting the set into her House. Why not Call a Man i asked. You Don t Call a Man for a to she explained. You Call a Man for a refrigerator. Well maybe a Man could help you set it up i said. She laughed. Men can t figure out electronic equipment she said. Women can program Vars belter than men. Men can t program them at All men Don t read the instructions. It s just like men Don t ask for directions when they in driving. Men Don t Ponder. Men have no patience. The instruction manual that comes with an electronic is the least read item by a Man in the history of paper products. To get the to out of her car Tracy propped two wooden boards against the Fence in Lur hive Way backed her car to the two by fours thus building a Small platform and without really lining the to she rocked the Carton onto the boards. Then she got a carpet Cutter and began to Cut Hole in the to car ton. So the to could breathe i asked smugly. No so i could use them like handles and lift the Box you Dork she said then she got a Luggage cart she uses to wheel her suitcase to the Airport and Slid the to Carton onto the Luggage cart and rolled it driveway across the backyard to her House. She did t have the strength or leverage to lift the Carton More than eight inches. Still she wrestled it up the Steps and Slid it through the House on a Towel so she would t scratch the floor. Can you imagine a Man thinking to Lay Down a Towel a Man would t care about a few scratches in the floor. A Man might draw the line at letting a Friend drive a snowmobile into his living room but maybe not. Tough Cal but Tracy could t lift it onto the to stand so then you called a Man right i ask Cal. No she said. She built Small scaffolds. She lifted the to six inches onto a Box that held a Var. She lifted he to six inches again onto an ottoman. Sire rolled the ottoman to the to stand and lifted he to the final six inches to the stand. A Man would have done it diff arc my i said. And i described How a Man Rotim or f id have picked the to out of the trunk 1 y i Iii of danced around frantically for a second la n a her Nia dropped the to on his foot Hrc to. Ini inc to and the foot. Then because men. Cruz t in guile pain nearly As Well As women a Man would or
