Bull***t Points
Today, I'm going to give you a little project, but you'll be well rewarded and entertained in the end.
I was curious about a hot selling book by Harry G. Frankfurt, put out by Princeton University Press. It's nothing more than an essay by the Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University. His books include The Reasons of Love (Princeton), Necessity, Volition, and Love, and The Importance of What We Care About.
This endorsement says it all:
"A gem of psychological insight, social commentary, philosophical analysis, and good humor. This is the work of an extraordinarily acute, attentive, and versatile philosopher who has succeeded in addressing an audience comprised of both other philosophers and the general public on a topic of considerable human interest in a characteristically wry and engaging way. It is one of the most enjoyable and humanly illuminating short pieces of philosophy produced in the past fifty years."--Raymond Geuss, University of Cambridge
What's the book, you ask?
Check out the link at http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/video/frankfurt/. Then give me a call. I believe it will make a great gift book, and you can always read it before you give it.
I was curious about a hot selling book by Harry G. Frankfurt, put out by Princeton University Press. It's nothing more than an essay by the Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University. His books include The Reasons of Love (Princeton), Necessity, Volition, and Love, and The Importance of What We Care About.
This endorsement says it all:
"A gem of psychological insight, social commentary, philosophical analysis, and good humor. This is the work of an extraordinarily acute, attentive, and versatile philosopher who has succeeded in addressing an audience comprised of both other philosophers and the general public on a topic of considerable human interest in a characteristically wry and engaging way. It is one of the most enjoyable and humanly illuminating short pieces of philosophy produced in the past fifty years."--Raymond Geuss, University of Cambridge
What's the book, you ask?
Check out the link at http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/video/frankfurt/. Then give me a call. I believe it will make a great gift book, and you can always read it before you give it.
posted by All4Word at 9:41 PM
1 Comments:
I agree with you, Bill, and I didn't make the catch on that, either.
But, a growing number of "authorities" would disagree with us and this teeth-jarring usage of "comprise" is growing in publication use.
I think it's an attempt to "smarten" the prose and the authorities have fallen in line with the usage, however temporary it may be.
We stalwarts must stick together.
The U.S. Senate is composed of 100 senators. 100 senators comprise the U.S. Senate.
Consult Barbara Wallraff, the word maven at Atlantic Monthly, and she makes a well-reasoned, but wrong, defense of the usage. So do most dictionaries, with fewer and fewer noting it as an unacceptable use.
Changing word usage and spelling reminds me of a story my mother carried to her dying day. Living on the border of two states, she often changed schools from Virginia to Tennessee, and what was acceptable on one side of the border was not on the other side.
She, like you, was a spelling champ, but never forgave her teachers for calling catalogue a wrong spelling and eliminating her from her last competition.
Of course, today that would be much more understandable, but in the 40s the spellings were pretty much interchangeable.
Alas, I'm afraid comprised and composed are being corrupted in the name of sounding smarter.
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