William Safire is dead at 79. From the Times:

And from 1979 until earlier this month, he wrote "On Language," a New York Times Magazine column that explored written and oral trends, plumbed the origins and meanings of words and phrases, and drew a devoted following, including a stable of correspondents he called his Lexicographic Irregulars.

The columns, many collected in books, made him an unofficial arbiter of usage and one of the most widely read writers on language. It also tapped into the lighter side of the dour-looking Mr. Safire: a Pickwickian quibbler who gleefully pounced on gaffes, inexactitudes, neologisms, misnomers, solecisms and perversely peccant puns, like "the president’s populism" and "the first lady’s momulism," written during the Carter presidency.

I totally geek out to "On Language" every weekend, and it's just not going to be the same without Safire. And though "On Language" mostly devotes itself to usage (the recent "fail" column is a perfect example), it turned me into the kind of person that busies himself fighting a losing battle against poor grammar, spelling and punctuation in the Facebook status of every chump from Altoona to Albuquerque. And I'm definitely not apologizing for that. Memo to people on Facebook that can't be bothered to take six seconds and proofread their status: every one of your friends thinks that you're a moron, whether they admit it to your face or not.

And now, for fun, here's a link to one of the best Onion "News In Brief" blurbs ever: William Safire Orders Two Whoppers Junior.

Labels: On Language, Whoppers Jr., William Safire