February 28, 2008 9:25
NYT A1: Sesquipedalian!!!!
Back when I was a cub reporter at a newspaper bureau in Easthampton, Mass., my colleague and I would play this game: First, come up with an obscure 10-dollar word, then see which one of us could get it past our editors and into the paper. The planning was always more fun than the execution. I think the best I ever achieved was "dun," which is a fancy, fun-to-say word for a brownish-gray color.
Never in our wildest dreams did we aspire to such a feat as getting the word "Sesquipedalian" into the headline on the front page of our newspaper. But today Douglas Martin has achieved the impossible, in an obituary of William F. Buckley Jr., the celebrated word smith. (Many paragraphs later Martin defines the word: "characterized by the use of long words.") Martin also squeezes the word "perspicacious" into his first paragraph, and drops the dime "pleonastic" later on. Notably, the online version of the story has a different headline, since the Times apparently thinks its online audience is too young or dumb to want to be challenged. (Also there is this industry secret: Online headlines are written less for readers than to game Google.)
To Martin, I say, Bravo. This is a victory for the entire profession. Let his obituary read, "Douglas Martin, a newspaperman who once got the word "sesquipedalian" onto the front page of the New York Times. . . . "
About Swampland
Ana Marie Cox is the founding editor of Wonkette and the author of the novel Dog Days. Read more
Joe Klein is TIME's political columnist and author of six books, most recently Politics Lost. Read more
Karen Tumulty is TIME's National Political Correspondent and has also covered the White House and Congress. Read more
Jay Carney is TIME's Washington bureau chief. He has covered the Clinton and Bush 43 White Houses as well as Congress. Read more
Jay Newton-Small has covered the Bush 43 White House and Congress since the DeLay era. Read more
Michael Scherer is a TIME Washington bureau correspondent covering the 2008 presidential campaign. Read more
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Reader Comments (26)
= OFFICIOUS ACCOMPLISHED =
Posted by QUESTION HILLARY
|
February 28, 2008 9:54 AM
That's all very nice Michael. Did you get your hug from John McCain this morning?
Because it seems he was off in Texas yesterday putting the warm embrace ... IN PERSON with minister John Hagge. Mr. McCain went on, "All I can tell you is I'm very proud to have pastor Hagee's support."
Yet, I have a feeling this just completely seems unimportant to you.
Far more important to members of the press is Obama NOT being there when Farrakham called him awesome.
Funny how that works innit?
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/mccain_accepts_endorsement_of.php
Posted by attaturk | February 28, 2008 9:55 AM
Do you play Scrabble? I'd love to lay down Sesquipedalian!
Posted by TeresaKopec | February 28, 2008 10:11 AM
You're obviously rooting for Martin to die just so you can write that obit and win a bet. For shame!
On preview, wow, really, McCain is palling around out in the open with John Hagee? Who thinks that Hurricane Katrina was divine retribution for America's policy on the talks between Israelis and Palestinians? That's about ten kabillion times worse than Tim Russert's goofy guilt-by-association game in the debate the other day.
Good gracious, look at Hagee's oeuvre: Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World; From Daniel to Doomsday: The Countdown Has Begun; The Beginning of the End. The guy's a less sane version of Eugene Levy's character in "A Mighty Wind."
But, at least we all know that in his heart of hearts, McCain knows better, and he's uncomfortable telling all these lies and embracing all these agents of intolerance.
Posted by Elvis Elvisberg
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February 28, 2008 10:19 AM
Sesquipedalian, n. - Someone who enjoys intimate relations with underage Sasquatches.
Posted by Gerry Mander | February 28, 2008 10:27 AM
No worries Elvis and attaturk-
You will get your McCain dirt as soon as events and my reporting permit it.
Posted by Michael Scherer | February 26, 2008 3:46 PM
Posted by Paul-no not that one | February 28, 2008 10:30 AM
Big flippin deal...
In a world where republicans and racists (which are often the same thing) are attacking perhaps the best man we have had for a Presidential candidate in 100 years as a Muslim and a supporter of the Black Panthers we are supposed to congratulate one of your colleagues for looking up a word in a dictionary and printing it.
Ok, I can do that too!
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian - which means, you guessed it, a really really long word.
Can the commenters have our own blog post about what kind of big and obscure words we can come up with or can we now please get back to the business at hand, which is the defeat of the GOP and the rise of our Barak Obama to the Presidency?
Thank you.
Posted by StewieZ | February 28, 2008 10:30 AM
No worries Elvis and attaturk-
You will get your McCain dirt as soon as events and my reporting permit it.
Posted by Michael Scherer
I'll believe it when I see it. Your track record the last week or so belies that notion.
Posted by attaturk | February 28, 2008 10:33 AM
Good one, Scherer. I love the word sesquipedalian, though I haven't thought of it in years. It's a good word to thin the competition in your spelling bee, too.
Lighten up, guys.
Posted by James, Los Angeles | February 28, 2008 10:39 AM
Good. You next challenge will be to use the word Mendacious to describe John McCain. It's a big word, and accurate!
Posted by Mike M. | February 28, 2008 10:46 AM
One and a half pedalian? Does that mean that there is a bipedalian or semipedalian? Or how about just plain pedalian?
Posted by Malcolm | February 28, 2008 10:48 AM
floccinaucinihilipilification - which is what this entire sorry excuse of a thread is.
Can we please go back to talking about stuff that matters?
Posted by StewieZ | February 28, 2008 10:51 AM
Well, just to be clear, James, I was joking about Scherer simply angling to work "sesquipedalian" into one of his articles.
This is a fun little post. I think that Buckley would have appreciated the tribute.
Posted by Elvis Elvisberg
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February 28, 2008 10:55 AM
Please, please, more posts like this and about the Rocket!!!
Good to see I'm not the only one who read Greenwald this a.m. I personally relish the clash of civilizations to come. And James in LA, your mariachi boys have finally drawn the attn. of the village!
Posted by Oregon JC | February 28, 2008 11:08 AM
Oh course you've managed to completely miss the point. If you weren't 7 years old you'd realize that the use of these words is a commentary on the style of the deceased. Maybe that's too meta for you, I know you're pretty "literal minded." Read: stupid.
Posted by crawdad | February 28, 2008 12:01 PM
Oregon,
Eh? The Village? Where?
Man, the whole world would be better off if we had more mariachi music. And he has a plan for health!
Posted by James, Los Angeles | February 28, 2008 1:07 PM
Elvis,
I luv ya, man.
Posted by James, Los Angeles | February 28, 2008 1:09 PM
Don't see many new words. "Sesquipedalian" is a cool word because it describes itself, like "curt."
Reading a not very successful novel by William Gibson, saw a new word (to me obviously) "lapidary," which I haven't looked up, but in context seems to b about making jewelry.
As for balanced coverage of racists, not gonna happen. Republicans are allowed to have racists supporters, even racist advicemongers in the TIME-Warner stratosphere. (I saw an amazing piece of CNN this week, of Howie Kurtz splicing together every Obama smear. Halperin musta been jealous.)
Posted by jayackroyd
|
February 28, 2008 1:48 PM
LA James,
At least two weeks after you brought the Swamp's attn. to it, I've seen it it at Halp's page of feces, Yahoo News and I think A. Sullivan.
Man, I'd kill to be singing that in Old Town San Diego, drinking yards of beer.
Posted by Oregon JC | February 28, 2008 2:32 PM
No this is not a victory for journalism. It's another example of just how far your field has fallen.
We're headed into a recession. Hundreds of thousands of people can't get jobs and you guys are busy playing around with big words?
Furthermore why do they assume a young audience is too stupid to understand or want to be challenged by big words? The continuing understimation of a generation. This is why we have a young, upstart politician making a serious challenge for the presidency. This patronizing of young people should really stop.
Posted by stringer | February 28, 2008 2:35 PM
Michael Scherer, it sounds like a form of the game Malcolm Gladwell described himself and his associate, Billy, playing when they worked in the Science section of the Washington Post. There is a great interview with him at NPR. Is this something journalists do routinely?
Posted by Pobo | February 28, 2008 4:09 PM
Pobo, I don't know. Had not seen the Gladwell thing. Maybe journalists are just like 6 year old kids: Put them on a beach and they each figure out eventually how to make sand castles.
Posted by Michael Scherer | February 28, 2008 5:27 PM
Thank you Pobo!
I knew I had heard it and couldn't remember where -- it was the Gladwell NPR interview!
Posted by ivb | February 28, 2008 5:43 PM
Oregon, I have not seen it since The Blog posted it. I want them to make one for California. Hells, yeah! Sunset Boulevard, yards of beer. I could like that. Yards, man. Maybe the mariachis over on Broadway can learn the new song.
Posted by James, Los Angeles | February 28, 2008 6:21 PM
Why don't you link for trackbacks at Swampland?
Posted by Nathan Clark | March 20, 2008 9:46 AM
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Posted by shooooq | July 18, 2008 1:15 PM