{"id":181775,"date":"2024-09-15T17:18:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T22:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/?p=181775"},"modified":"2024-09-15T17:18:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T22:18:23","slug":"todays-quote-the-pedant-as-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/todays-quote-the-pedant-as-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Today&#8217;s quote: the pedant as hero"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commentary.org\/articles\/joseph-epstein\/pedant-writing-editing\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joseph Epstein<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The only time I have been able to impose my pedantry upon a group larger than a room of 15 or 20 students was during the time (chiefly the 1970s and \u201980s) when I edited the <i>American Scholar<\/i>, the intellectual quarterly of Phi Beta Kappa. First day on the job, I outlawed from the magazine\u2019s pages a number of words or phrases popular at the time. Among them were \u201cinput\u201d and \u201cfeedback,\u201d which together always sounded to me a linguistic version of peristalsis. \u201cCharisma\u201d was not permitted to apply to anyone of lesser stature or influence than Gandhi or Jesus. \u201cLifestyle\u201d was strictly <i>verboten<\/i>, so, too, weasel words such as \u201carguably\u201d or \u201cinterestingly.\u201d \u201cAuthor\u201d used as a verb, <i>poof<\/i>!, was gone; \u201csupportive\u201d was never allowed in the game. \u201cIntriguing\u201d was permitted only if it referred to spying or diplomacy, and \u201cimpact\u201d exclusively to car crashes and dentistry. \u201cCaring,\u201d \u201csharing,\u201d \u201cgrowing,\u201d \u201cparenting,\u201d \u201clearning experience,\u201d and other psychobabble words were excluded.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joseph Epstein: The only time I have been able to impose my pedantry upon a group larger than a room of 15 or 20 students was during the time (chiefly the 1970s and \u201980s) when I edited the American Scholar, the intellectual quarterly of Phi Beta Kappa. First day on the job, I outlawed from &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/todays-quote-the-pedant-as-hero\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Today&#8217;s quote: the pedant as hero&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-and-anti-culture","category-words"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xam3-LhR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181776,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181775\/revisions\/181776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}