Worth reading

I haven't been reading William Safire's On Language column as often as I used to. His stuff just isn't as interesting to me as it used to be. But I'm glad I got past the lead of today's piece, in which the New York Times language guru discusses some interesting new books on language.

I'm most intrigued by two of the titles. The first is Carol Fisher Saller's "The Subversive Copy Editor," of which Safire writes:

It’s an insider’s book to cure writers who can’t stand “damnable nitpicking” while shoring up editors with “it’s not the author’s right to offend or confuse the reader, defy the rules of standard English, fail to identify sources or lower the standards of your institution.”

I don't think I've ever met a "damnable nitpicker" myself. Myself? Oh, yeah, myself.

The second book I'm interested in is "100 Words Almost Everyone Mispronounces," by the editors of American Heritage Dictionaries. Some of the words they discuss, according to Safire, are "almond" (don't pronounce the "L") and "often" (leave out the "T).

I hope they take on "height." I cannot stand to hear it mispronounced as "heighth." Do you say "weighth"? No. Why not? Because neither "height" nor "weight" includes a -th. You do say "depth" and "width. (Note the -th in each.)

I guess that's enough nitpicking for today.