Oh, Be Quiet

“[William] Safire, a master of the form, was fond of likening column writing to standing under a windmill: No sooner did you feel relief that you had ducked a blade than you looked up and saw a new one coming down.

“He thrived on this, but after 17 years I didn’t like what the relentless production of a newspaper column was doing to my writing. That routine can push you to have stronger opinions than you actually have, or contrived opinions about subjects you may not care deeply about, or to run roughshod over nuance to reach an unambiguous conclusion. 

“Believe it or not, an opinion writer can sometimes get sick of his own voice.”

—Frank Rich, columnist, “Confessions of an Op-Ed Columnist,” The New York Times, March 13, 2011. (Thanks to alert WORDsters Richard Prince & Dick Hughes)

• Editorial Comment: Hey, believe us, we can believe it.

peezpix by Ted Pease

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard