Sometimes I know the meaning of a word but am tired of it and feel the need for an unfamiliar, especially precise or poetic term, perhaps one with a nuance that flatters my readership's exquisite sensitivity.

Writers who used to show off their erudition no longer sing in the bare ruined choir of the media.

I'm a right-wing pundit and have been for many years.

In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system, non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls this Soviet-style abomination 'a full and fair trial.'

I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.

No one flower can ever symbolize this nation. America is a bouquet.

A reader ought to be able to hold it and become familiar with its organized contents and make it a mind's manageable companion.