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A dependent clause is like a dependent child: incapable of standing on its own but able to cause a lot of trouble.

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
Causes
Child
Clause
Able
Clauses
Children
Incapable
Like
Dependent
Standing
Cause
Trouble

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As long as one American is hungry... then we have unfinished business in this country.
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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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On the analogy of 'Dictionary Johnson,' we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), 'Quotationeer Shapiro.' Shapiro does original research, earning his 1,067-page volume a place on the quotation shelf next to Bartlett's and Oxford's.
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Never put the story in the lead. Let 'em have a hot shot of ambiguity right between the eyes.
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The most fun in breaking a rule is in knowing what rule you're breaking.
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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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President Reagan is a rhetorical roundheels, as befits a politician seeking empathy with his audience.
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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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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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If you re-read your work, you can find on re-reading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by re-reading and editing.
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Have a definite opinion.
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The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
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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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Of higher value than any one leader is the cause.
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The most successful column is one that causes the reader to throw down the paper in a peak of fit.
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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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Gridlock is great. My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.'
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One difference between French appeasement and American appeasement is that France pays ransom in cash and gets its hostages back while the United States pays ransom in arms and gets additional hostages taken.
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