No Uncertain Terms Bk. 1 : More Writing from the Popular "On Language" Column in The New York Times Magazine

by William Safire

• ISBN13: 9780743242431
• ISBN10: 0743242432
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-06
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

There is no wittier, more amiable or more astute word maven than Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Safire.

For many people, the first item on the agenda for Sunday morning is to sit down and read Safire's "On Language" column in The New Yor

Author Biography

William Safire is a senior columnist for The New York Times and a former speechwriter for President Nixon.

Excerpts

TRACKING THE FAST TRACK To be revealed before your very eyes is the anatomy of an "On Language" column. You will discover its impetus, its motive, its little research tricks, its blinding flashes of lexicographic insight and the way the writer, straining to show how language illuminates The Meaning of Life, settles for the meaning of a word.1. Glom onto a vogue word just as it passes its peak."White House Finds'Fast Track'Too Slippery" was theWashington Postheadline over a story by Peter Baker. His lead: "Attention White House speechwriters: The termfast trackis no longer in vogue." As the drive for free-trade legislation began, the phrase of choice was "Renewal of Traditional Trading Authority."Just as many of you were getting your engines steamed up to take thefast track,your track gets renamed. Why?"Fast-tracklegislation" made its burst for fame in the mid-70s as Congress gave the President a right that stretched to twenty years to negotiate trade treaties with other nations without having to face amendments back home; as a result, subsequent treaties would be ratified or turned down, all-er-nuthin'. Robert Cassidy, a lawyer who helped draft the Trade Act of 1974, recalls the adjective surfacing toward the end of the Tokyo Round in the late 70s; it did not appear in legislation until 1988.When presidential authority to zip a treaty through expired, a Republican Congress was not so eager to hand that power back to Democrat Clinton. That's the reason White House wordmeisters derailed the use offast track(too hasty-sounding) in favor of the solid, stodgy, nothing-new-here "Renewal of Traditional Trading Authority," as if George Washington had been born with the oldfast trackin his crib.2. Involve the reader.Here is a postcard from a slum dweller in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, with an incomprehensible scrawl for a name asking: "What's withfast track?Whatever happened to 'life in the fast lane'?"Now our linguistic train begins to leave the station, and we3. Follow the usage trail.Thefast lanecomes from auto racing. The trustyOxford English Dictionary,supplemented and on CD-ROM, has a 1966 citation from Thomas Henry Wisdom'sHigh Performance Driving:"One is frustrated on a motorway by the driver ahead in thefast lane(if only he understood it is the overtaking lane)."How did the term get popularized in its metaphorically broadened form? A 1972 novel by Douglas Rutherford was titledClear the Fast Lane,but that was still about auto racing. Then, in 1976, a rock group named the Eagles put out an album,Hotel California,that included the single "Life in the Fast Lane" by Joe Walsh, Don Henley and Glenn Frey."They knew all the right people/They took all the right pills/They threw outrageous parties/They paid heavenly bills/There were lines on the mirror, lines on her face/She pretended not to notice she was caught up in the race...." The chorus: "Life in thefast lane/Surely make you lose your mind...."Since that song, thefast lanehas had overtones of the drug culture and impending disaster, a speeded-up, sinister, modern version of Shakespeare's "primrose path of dalliance."At this point, the language columnist thinks he has come to the fundament of it all, fulfilling his obligation to4. Satisfy the slavering etymological urge in roots-deprived readers.We have seen the OED make clear that the derivation is from highway driving. In Britain, thefast laneis the overtaking lane; in the United States, it is usually officially called the "passing lane." And asfast lanewas being adopted, it spawned, or influenced,fast track.Not so fast. The phrasefast trackhas a long history in horse racing, to mean "dry, conducive to speed." On the other hand, if it has been raining, the wet track is described as