A thought on not overdoing it with the adjectives
“Adjective salad is delicious, with each element contributing its individual and unique flavor; but a puree of adjective soup tastes yecchy.”
— William Safire
The American pundit William Safire was born in the same year as my dad (that would be 1929), so I naturally associate him with Dad’s generation. He was a political pundit writing from the right, or at least was a conservative in the 20th century sense of the word. He died in 2009, and I would be so curious to read what he had to say about politics in his country in the last decade or so.
Safire was widely respected beyond political circles for his frequent articles and books about language, writing and usage. His 1980 book On Language paved the way for what became, in effect, his main career; he wrote a column in the New York Times Magazine on the subject that ran for three decades straight. His arguments against jargon and in favour of clear and plain language are still potent.
