One challenge to the arts in America is the need to make the arts, especially the classic masterpieces, accessible and relevant to today's audience.

On the analogy of 'Dictionary Johnson,' we call Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the just-published Yale Book of Quotations (well worth the $50 price), 'Quotationeer Shapiro.' Shapiro does original research, earning his 1,067-page volume a place on the quotation shelf next to Bartlett's and Oxford's.

Previously known for its six syllables of sweetness and light, reconciliation has become the political fighting word of the year.

Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?

If you want to "get in touch with your feelings," fine, talk to yourself. We all do. But if you want to communicate with another thinking human being, get in touch with your thoughts. Put them in order, give them a purpose, use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce. The secret way to do this is to write it down, and then cut out the confusing parts.

Some handsome and ambitious men believe they are above all morality, and a woman's virtue becomes a mere challenge to them.

... it's Bush's baby, even if he shares its popularization with Gorbachev. Forget the Hitler 'new order' root; F.D.R. used the phrase earlier.