European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 30, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cutting through to the meaning of on the Edge William Safire on language Lizabeth Drew s new highly insider Book about the Clinton presidency is titled on the Edge from a quote attributed to a close Friend of the Clinton Bill has Al ways been someone who has lived on the Edge politically and  the reporter treats it to mean in the Aura of  on the Edge is where it s at metaphorically speak ing. A Blurb for Mark Olshaker s new novel the Edge reads a thriller that stretches the limits of the genre ? and takes readers to the terrifying Edge of human behaviour and medical  Edge from the Middle English Egge based on the old English cog meaning Corner Point came to mean Border margin rim a place that lends itself to a pyrotechnic display of metaphors. What for example does on the Edge mean one sense is at the dividing line As on the Cut Ting Edge of  the lexicographer Anne Soukhanov traces it to the 1718 Alexander Pope translation of Homer s Iliad where each greek stands on the sharpest Edge of death or  w. Somerset maugham used this sense in his 1944 title the razor s Edge. Another sense is poised ready As to be on the Edge of a major decision an 1884 biography of fran Cis Bacon recounts he was now on the very Edge of losing his office a position familiar to Many current candidates. This is More frequently expressed As on the verge of. To live on the Edge in its latest mean ing is to court danger to experience the thrilling state of always nearly getting caught. No ifs or ands either she glues her swim suit to her butt Roxanne Roberts wrote in the Washington Post about a con Testant in the miss America pageant. Purposeful debasement of to in language a Post Reader objected. Butt used this Way is Gutter Lan Guage Thomas Parker or. Continued. Not acceptable in polite  another Reader Donald Mcewan countered this commonplace and inoffensive word is not identified As a vulgar usage in Webster s new. World adding that the dictionary includes a Syno nym for butt that i imagine Parker would be even less pleased to see in  butt is a clip of buttock a Standard English word rooted in German for the Fleshy Back of the hip on which a person sits As acceptable in polite modern discourse As foot or Penis. The Slang expression to kick butt is also inoffensive to most people and butt head Long ago lost its taboo. Butt head uses the verb butt based on a germanic verb for to thrust or beat and the noun with a Lowercase a names one of mtg s cartoon characters Beavis and  a recent Federal District court decision in California tossed out a libel suit by the astronomer Carl Sagan on the use of the word. He d sued Apple computer after insisting that Apple Stop using Carl Sagan As the code name on its personal computer the company complied changing the code name to butt head astronomer in Dis missing the Case judge Lourdes Baird wrote one does not seriously attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase  another Root leads to the French but meaning target and is the source of the butt of  new York times Resnick s Book about Nicole is a Dud Tony Kornheiser and now in the tradition of such great contemporary american writers As to Wolfe . Doctorow and John Irving comes a torrid new voice Faye d. Resnick. A woman with guts. A woman with Access. A woman with a word processor. A woman who writes Scari higly of , Simpson flow quickly that smile that Happy Public face could transform itself into a terrifying sweat streaked mask of naked  ladies and gentlemen i give you Faye d. Resnick whose main achievement in life until two weeks ago appears to have involved obtaining surgical reconstruction of her nose and utilizing said nose to Snork up various powders like a Dustbuster. The  is a great touch. It confers dignity. She should have gone further and made it Faye d. Resnick or. Better yet f. Dorcas Resnick special to the new York times Faye d. Resnick who is described As a wealthy. Beverly Hills socialite which Means her family Doc Tor is a plastic surge Ortr Rias written Nicole Brown Simpson the private diary of a life interrupted a Book that has if nothing else a Long title. Resnick characterizes herself As Nicole s Best Friend and of s confidante and then writes about an affair Nicole Brown had with Marcus Allen and an affair Nicole Brown had with her Faye d. Res Nick and How Nicole was a total raving sex maniac whom . Beat up and humiliated and threatened to kill. The Book includes swell private photos of Resnick with her Best Friend and confidante. It goes without saying that with friends and confidantes like like Nicole this 15 Keally confining and painful. 1 peyote a p1u.ow. Faye d. Resnick who needs Giraldo at this time i would like to announce the Forth coming publication of my new Book bad stuff about my dear Friend Martha Rayc who was recently found dead and who i happen to know slept with a horse and Lawrence Welk s Mother and the entire bullpen of the 1952 Detroit tigers i probably should t get mad at Faye d. Resnick for being a unconscionable Ghoul and cashing in Over the dead body of her Best Friend. This whole affair has encouraged the very worst in America Faye d. Resnick is just the latest example. From the very beginning millions tuned in to see whether . Would blow his brains out on National to through the camera hogging by Gil Garcetti and Robert Sha Piro and the endless Parade of tabloid shows speculating on the bloody Glove the missing knife the flesh encrusted threshing machine and to the 1-900 touch tone numbers where you could vote 1. . Is guilty. 2. . Did t act alone. 3. . Was framed. 4. This in t really . The real . Had plastic surgery and is living in Morocco. Now people who should be slapped silly for doing it somehow find it cute to dress up for halloween . And Nicole. What must Law school students think when they turn on the television and hear a panel of fashion experts say that the trial will hinge on what Marcia Clark wears i think the trial will hinge on what . Wears. A football uniform would be Good. A leather mask and Chain saw would be bad with All this Back and Forth the problem All along has been securing a jury. And Faye d. Resnick s Blok makes it harder. Judge Lance i to is worried prospective jurors May be exposed to something Ter Rible by Reading this Book beyond terrible writing. My favorite solution to the problem has been pro. Posed by Robert Shapiro who asked Ito to release . On bail and suspend the trial for a year to allow the Media juror to Burn itself  hah the Media will Burn itself out on this one when the Sun Burns itself out. Every Day you Post Pone this trial is another invitation for someone even less scrupulous than Faye d. Resnick if such a thing is possible to write a Book about Nicole or Ronald Goldman or ., a urging the most hideous things. It s Bam enough to write books about the dead when the dead can t defend themselves i would t be at All surprised if they started printing books about Nicole written by dead people my secret life with Nicole by adm. Hyman Rickover. Creators Syndicate Page 20 sunday october 30, 1994