Farewell to a language guru

New York Times veteran William Safire was a great writer. He died last week. Safire was a speechwriter in the Nixon White House and later won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He also was the longtime writer of the "On Language" column in the Times magazine. Maureen Dowd's column is a great sendoff. Or is that send-off? If only I could ask Safire.

I won't add any unnecessary adjectives to describe him because they might cause Safire to turn over in his grave. I will, however, tip my AP Stylebook to the man who penned both “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”