My Impromptus today begins with the 2024 presidential election and gets slightly cheerier from there, I think. Anyway, a smorgasbord of issues. Try it out, here. Now let’s have some mail.
In my column yesterday, abortion came up. Political types are worried about positioning. Where should they “be”? I wrote,
I have some advice, for politicians and others. Ready? Okay. Figure out what you think about abortion, and what the law should be. And then say what you think.
Everything is easier that way. Calculating can be so wearisome. Calculating, calculating, calculating. But what if you lose an election? That’s okay. Life goes on . . .
A reader writes,
Ronald Reagan did exactly as you suggest. As a new governor, he didn’t know what to think about abortion. Then he studied it, decided he must be against it, and consistently maintained that position for the rest of his life.
This is all documented in The Literary Reagan . . .
Also in my column, I had some things to say about language — the twists and turns of English, some of them good, some of them not.
A reader asks,
What do you think about “I could care less,” to mean “I couldn’t care less”?
I like it a lot, and defend it totally. It is an idiom. And idioms are not supposed to be logical, necessarily. That’s the glory of an idiom (one of the glories).
A reader writes,
Hey, Jay, as an English teacher, I am with you on “begs the question,” “international” vs. “foreign,” etc. Don’t get me started on “literally.” . . .
“Foreign” is going away because, to some, it’s pejorative. As is that eminently useful word “immigrant.” And using them is, somehow, slightly political and slightly racist. To you and me, this is itself slightly racist: the idea that to describe something as “foreign” is somehow to disparage it. I love a lot of foreign things. I loved my immigrant mother. I enjoy the foreign accents and perspectives of my immigrant students.
Hear, hear.
Finally,
Jay,
. . . Why do people pronounce “et cetera” “ek cetera”?
Ignorance. A lack of education. And once they know — they know.
I thank one and all readers and correspondents. Again, for today’s Impromptus, go here. Later on.