William Safire was a conservative that I admired. The reasons were simple. First he was not part of the hysterical fringe. He was a calm, collected, and reasoning man. Second he was a wonderful writer. His “On Language” weekly column was a favorite of mine. I even created my own blog with the same title and purpose. That was the tracing of word origins and their usage. I could never match his use of language and never anticipated but always dreamed I could.
What scares me most is he was only nine years older than me. I am hoping to see my one hundredth birthday and know that I am 100 years old.
Safire’s stupid writing for Spiro Agnew was creative. “Nattering nabobs of negativism” is the one I remember. It was smart, cheeky and fun.
Coast Contact 