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Do not be taken in by 'insiderisms.' Fledgling columnists, eager to impress readers with their grasp of journalistic jargon, are drawn to such arcane spellings as 'lede.' Where they lede, do not follow.

William Safire

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William Safire
Age: 79 †
Born: 1929
Born: December 17
Died: 2009
Died: September 27
Author
Columnist
Journalist
Writer
New York City
New York
William Lewis Safire
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Journalistic
Reader
Jargon
Taken
Spelling
Eager
Impress
Fledgling
Grasp
Fledglings
Drawn
Arcane
Readers
Columnists

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Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.
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If America cannot win a war in a week, it begins negotiating with itself.
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I want my questions answered by an alert and experienced politician, prepared to be grilled and quoted -- not my hand held by an old smoothie.
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No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.
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The tension between the governed and the governing is what makes the world go 'round. It's not love, it's that tension, because that tension exists in love affairs. The whole idea of control is at the heart of human relationships. Control and resistance to control.
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The new, old, and constantly changing language of politics is a lexicon of conflict and drama?ridicule and reproach?pleading and persuasion.
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George Washington had a tough second term.
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When articulation is impossible, gesticulation comes to the rescue.
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Better to be a jerk that knees than a knee that jerks.
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The perfect Christmas gift for a sportscaster, as all fans of sports clichés know, is a scoreless tie.
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I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
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Cast aside any column about two subjects. It means the pundit chickened out on the hard decision about what to write about that day.
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The trick is to start early in our careers the stress-relieving avocation that we will need later as a mind-exercising final vocation. We can quit a job, but we quit fresh involvement at our mental peril.
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Don't expect others to do your work for you.
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Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
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Sometimes I know the meaning of a word but am tired of it and feel the need for an unfamiliar, especially precise or poetic term, perhaps one with a nuance that flatters my readership's exquisite sensitivity.
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I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.
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A book should have an intellectual shape and a heft that comes with dealing with a primary subject.
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The wonderful thing about being a New York Times columnist is that it's like a Supreme Court appointment - they're stuck with you for a long time.
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I think we have a need to know what we do not need to know.
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