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...this autobiographical screed, Dershowitz begins with a childhood in an Orthodox Jewish section of Brooklyn. The boy was too secular for Talmudic scholarship, but he proved to be a stubborn and flashy debater. A fellow student appraised him: Alan "has a mouth of Webster and a head of Clay." The mouth went on to Yale Law School, where he ranked first in his class, yet found himself locked out of prominent legal firms because of "the world of bigotry, discrimination, racism, and anti-Semitism called the American...
Samuel Johnson should be living at this hour; the English language has need of him. Though he was never at a loss for words, the great lexicographical drudge would probably be confounded to read the new Random House Webster's College Dictionary. It is bugled as "the New Definition of Dictionary," the "newest, biggest and best...
Those who believe dictionaries should not merely reflect the times but also protect English from the mindless assaults of the trendy will find that the Random House Webster's lends authority to scores of questionable usages, many of them tinged with "politically correct" views. Purists will fume, but what is worse is that such permissiveness can only invite a further tattering of the language -- and already...
...WASN'T ALWAYS this way. In the last century, American politicians were expected to "speechify" for hours on end, without benefit of speechwriters, teleprompters, or even notes. The great orators of the day--Webster, Clay and Calhoun--effortlesly infused their speeches with Biblical allegory and allusions to the classics...
...other hand, there is a certain value to attaching words to the men and women who spoke them. Can you imagine learning that Daniel Webster or Winston Churchill had some 24-year-old Ivy. League weenie on the staff churning out lines like, "Liberty and union, one and inseparable, now and forever!" and "We have nothing to offer except blood, sweat and tears...