{"id":8994,"date":"2013-02-11T13:07:32","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T13:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/02\/11\/an-apology-to-the-shade-of-william-safire\/"},"modified":"2013-02-11T13:07:32","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T13:07:32","slug":"an-apology-to-the-shade-of-william-safire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2013\/02\/11\/an-apology-to-the-shade-of-william-safire\/","title":{"rendered":"An Apology to the Shade of William Safire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Language matters, but so does accurate quotation. I thank the illustrious Mr. Lull for his contributions to the high level of quality control here at MavPhil<\/em>.  <\/div>\n
Dear Bill,<\/p>\n

William Safire came up with a list of what he called "fumblerules." "A fumblerule contains an example contrary to the advice it gives . . . ."* Among them is "Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague."**  I think that that fumblerule's what Mr Hitchens misquoted.<\/p>\n

Best,
Dave<\/p>\n

=====
* http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fumblerules<\/a>
**Mr Safire's fumblerules are widely quoted on the web.  I checked on this particular one in his book Fumblerules : a lighthearted guide to grammar and good usage (New York : Doubleday, 1990), page [149], and I've quoted it as it appears there.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nFrom:<\/strong> William F Vallicella  <\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
To:<\/strong> Dave Lull <\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
Sent:<\/strong> Monday, February 11, 2013 1:27 PM
Subject:<\/strong> Safire Quotation
<\/span> <\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Dear Dave,<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I recently quoted William Safire as having written, "Avoid  stock expressions like the plague."  I think I got this quotation form Hitchens' final book.  Since I object to the passing off of bogus quotations, can you tell me where Safire wrote the above, if he did?<\/div>\n
Regards,<\/div>\n
Bill V.<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Language matters, but so does accurate quotation. I thank the illustrious Mr. Lull for his contributions to the high level of quality control here at MavPhil.  Dear Bill, William Safire came up with a list of what he called "fumblerules." "A fumblerule contains an example contrary to the advice it gives . . . ."* … Continue reading “An Apology to the Shade of William Safire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}