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A reader should be able to identify a column without its byline or funny little picture on top purely by look or feel, or its turgidity ratio.

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
Column
Able
Columns
Look
Little
Purely
Without
Identify
Looks
Picture
Feel
Reader
Ratio
Feels
Funny
Ratios
Littles

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Never feel guilty about reading, it's what you do to do your job.
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What a joy it is to see really professional media manipulation.
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Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?
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Sir Alec Douglas-Home, when he was British Foreign Secretary, said he received the following telegram from an irate citizen: To hell with you. Offensive letter follows.
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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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In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system, non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls this Soviet-style abomination 'a full and fair trial.'
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George Washington had a tough second term.
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To communicate, put your words in order give them a purpose use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce.
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I could get a better education interviewing John Steinbeck than talking to an English professor about novels.
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Avoid overuse of 'quotation “marks.”'
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The CEO era gave rise to the CFO (not certified flying object, as you might imagine, but chief financial officer) and, most recently, the CIO, chief investment officer, a nice boost for the bookkeeper you can't afford to give a raise . . .
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Dangling punch lines to forgotten stories remain in the language like the smile of the Cheshire cat.
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I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian.
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We are all environmentalists now, but we are not all planetists. An environmentalist realizes that nature has its pleasures and deserves respect. A planetist puts the earth ahead of the earthlings.
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Only in grammar can you be more than perfect.
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Decide on some imperfect Somebody and you will win, because the truest truism in politics is: You can't beat Somebody with Nobody.
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You don't want lopsided government. You don't want one side running roughshod over the other.
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Never assume the obvious is true.
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By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking.
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Create your own constituency of the infuriated.
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