Word: wordsmithing
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...Safire thinks that he has made the best of a bad situation: "If I defend the President, I'm an apologist. If I attack him, I'm a traitor. If I ignore the whole thing, I'm a cop-out." Deservedly known as a wit and wordsmith during his years as an Administration speechwriter, Safire has kept his sense of humor throughout the ordeal, although his neologisms ("presibuster" for the Ervin hearings, "probephiliacs" for those investigating Watergate) are shorter on style than many of his admirers had expected. One of his more inventive efforts was a savagely...
...distinguished career. The prevailing waltz meter is more suggestive of fin de siècle Vienna than the Scandinavian north, but why carp? In a show almost without choreography, Sondheim's lyrics are nimble-wilted dances. Literate, ironic, playful, enviably clever, altogether professional, Stephen Sondheim is a quicksilver wordsmith in the grand tradition of Cole Porter, Noel Coward and Lorenz Hart. There are three standout numbers. One is Liaisons (Gingold), a lament that courtesans are not the elegantly larcenous creatures they used to be. Equally arresting are Send In the Clowns (Johns), a rueful gaze into the cracked mirror...
Eloquent Ideologue. No, it is not an easy job to shepherd the flock following the wordsmith who, in his glacial contempt for newsmen, has included them among the "nattering nabobs of negativism." Says one Agnew intimate: "If someone were to advise the Vice President to close down his press office, leaving only a girl to answer the phone and say 'F- you' to every query, Agnew would be perfectly agreeable...
...Marshall, among others?crowded the famous Hyannisport compound, taking every spare bed. Only the house of Jacqueline Onassis, who was away, escaped service as a dormitory. One group of advisers, led by McNamara, strongly urged a full and immediate explanation. Finally, Ted agreed and the speechwriters?Sorensen, J.F.K.'s wordsmith; David Burke, Ted's administrative assistant; and Milton Gwirtzman, a Washington lawyer and Kennedy friend?began their work. By the time their output was broadcast, of course, much of the country was analyzing the case...
Died. Wilfred John Funk, 83, master wordsmith and retired president of Funk & Wagnalls publishing house; of arteriosclerosis; in Montclair, N.J. (see PRESS...