An Aha Moment for William Safire

William Safire died Sunday. He was 79. Those of us old enough to recall, those of us full of senior moments, will remember that he wrote many of President Nixon's speeches on the economy and Vietnam who became a Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for The New York Times. Today, he is most likely to be remembered for his New York Times On Language column, a "Malaprop’s treasury of articles" as characterized by this New York Times obituary. A collection of Safire's On Language columns published in The New York Times can be found here.

Politics still played out in Safire's On Language columns, See, for example, Safire's September 3, 2009 column entitled Channeling. It was prompted by Hillary Clinton's "I'm not going to be channeling my husband" response to a Congolese student's question that was translated as “What does Mr. Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton? ... ” In that context, one finds the Secretary of State's response to be much more understandable than the fevor it caused in the unthinking press.

The Times will be hard-pressed to find someone to replace this oracle of language for what was my most favorite column in the newspaper. On Language Columns by others who filled in for Safire from time to time never hit the bulls-eye as consistently as Safire did.

In Memory of William Safire's Career

Senior moment is growing riper as the population ages, especially in its association as precursor to the aha! moment. ... We forget. But after that embarrassing senior moment, perhaps — in “a payoff to daydreaming” — another, happier instant flashes on like one of those cool, compact fluorescent light bulbs: the aha! moment.

From Safire's On Aha and Senior Moments. See also the New York Times slideshow presentation, The Career of William Safire, for more memories. [JH]