Todays Birthday? Bill Safire

Free Dictionary ^ | 12/17/2020 | Moi

[Phlap]

William Safire December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009)[2] was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter.

He was perhaps best known as a long-time syndicated political columnist for the New York Times and the author of "On Language" in the New York Times Magazine, a column on popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics from its inception. After Safire wrote a column in which he insulted a first lady, a White House aide remarked that if the president were not the president, he would have responded in what way?

[Phlap]

Safire called Hillary a congenital liar which is a statement of truth, not an insult.

[Blurb2350]

Interesting tidbit from the linked biographical entry: “Safire prepared a speech called In Event of Moon Disaster for President Nixon to read on television if the Apollo 11 astronauts were stranded on the Moon. According to the plans, Mission Control would “close down communications” with the LEM and a clergyman would have commended their souls to “the deepest of the deep” in a public ritual likened to burial at sea. Presidential telephone calls to the astronauts’ wives were also planned. The speech originated in a memo from Safire to Nixon’s chief of staff H. R. Haldeman in which Safire suggested a protocol the administration might follow in reaction to such a disaster. The last line of the prepared text contained an allusion to Rupert Brooke’s First World War poem, “The Soldier”.”

[lizma2]

Read Scandalmonger years ago. Enjoyed it.