[OT] Death of an outstanding wordsmith

[Combs, Richard]

Yves JEAUROND wrote:
 
> William F. Buckley, 1925-2008, passed away, February 27.
> 
> 
>       Though he did not speak often of technical writing, his 
> last column for the National Review, injects talk about 
> Fowler's "popularized technicalities" into commentary about a 
> debate between Obama and Clinton. What a fitting end piece 
> for a fan of the English language, articulate speech and 
> voluptuous prose. 

Thanks, Yves! That URL ended up with some spaces in it. Here's a TinyURL
link to that column: 

	http://tinyurl.com/23enef

Buckley was a big fan of Fowler: "My reluctance to quote at such length
from the great Fowler is mitigated by my serious wish that students of
the English language would themselves take the initiative of
familiarizing themselves with the profundities and niceties of the
points being made by Mr. Fowler."

I wasn't a big fan of Bill Buckley, but did admire his erudition and
humor. Here are a couple of quotes I particularly like, the first
demonstrating that he wasn't the snobbish elitist he sometimes appeared
to be: 

"I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand
names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by
the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University."

"World War is the second worst activity of mankind, the worst being
acquiescence in slavery."

Richard


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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