August 19, 2004

In Praise of Andrew Tobias

Kevin Drum reminds me that I should read Andrew Tobias more often. If I were a better person, I would read Andrew Tobias more regularly. And if I read Andrew Tobias more regularly, that would make me a better person--smarter, wiser, better-informed, more knowledgeable*, and witter.

*Can this possibly be how you spell "knowledgeable"?

Posted by DeLong at August 19, 2004 12:00 PM | TrackBack | | Other weblogs commenting on this post
Comments

All I can tell you, Brad, is that I'm pretty sure "witter" is not the correct way to spell "wittier".

Posted by: General Glut on August 19, 2004 12:10 PM

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Spelling reform, anyone?

Posted by: Matthew Yglesias on August 19, 2004 12:20 PM

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He's my home page. Got to have a home page somewhere, and it was him or herdthinners.

Posted by: walter willis on August 19, 2004 12:25 PM

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He's my home page. Got to have a home page somewhere, and it was him or herdthinners.

Posted by: walter willis on August 19, 2004 12:29 PM

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Does Andrew know how to prepare rice?

Posted by: me on August 19, 2004 12:39 PM

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Yes, that is the way to spell knowledgeable.

Perversely enough, judgment is generally spelled without the 'e'.

English is such a pastiche.

Posted by: paperwight on August 19, 2004 12:42 PM

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http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=knowledgeable

Posted by: Alan on August 19, 2004 12:45 PM

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His book The Best Little Boy in the World is a wonderful book about his being an overachiever to "compensate" for his homosexuality. I see this trait in a lot of driven gay men.

Plus, he's still a very, very handsome man. :-)

Posted by: Jim on August 19, 2004 01:05 PM

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> Perversely enough, judgment is generally spelled without the 'e'.

Yet, judgeable seems better than judgable.

Posted by: S0C7 on August 19, 2004 01:06 PM

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Google:

Knowledgeable 2.5 million
Knowledgable .25 million.

More accurate numbers are posted on the wrong thread.

Posted by: zizka / John Emerson on August 19, 2004 04:51 PM

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The "e" remains because the phonetic rule has it that "g" sounds "hard" (as in "gain") when followed by "a," but "soft" (as in "gentle") when followed by "e." That's why "judgment" is ok (though the Brits, and American undergraduates, spell it with the "e") but "judgable" looks wrong. That will be five cents, dears.

Posted by: Nancy Irving on August 19, 2004 10:02 PM

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The "e" remains because the phonetic rule has it that "g" sounds "hard" (as in "gain") when followed by "a," but "soft" (as in "gentle") when followed by "e." That's why "judgment" is ok (though the Brits, and American undergraduates, spell it with the "e") but "judgable" looks wrong. That will be five cents, dears.

Posted by: Nancy Irving on August 19, 2004 10:03 PM

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"That's why "judgment" is ok (though the Brits, and American undergraduates, spell it with the "e")"

I'm a "Brit" and I don't. Neither do the law reports nor Hansard.

Posted by: fobyoc on August 19, 2004 11:03 PM

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