The Cincinnati Enquirer carried a pleasant story in May about the retirement of a local judge after 65 years on the bench. The old gentleman found it hard to quit. “He said he would be back in the office today for awhile.”On Aug. 5, The Washington Post carried a friendly piece on the approaching retirement […]

The game is on to describe products, events, even ideas, in words that are politically correct. What is a “sentinel event”? Well, it’s not a mistaken shooting by a soldier on guard duty. It’s something awful that a hospital does to you. If a surgeon cuts off the wrong leg or sews you up with […]

Q My wife objects every time I call something “cheesy,” meaning “of poor quality,” because she loves cheese. How did “cheesy” come to have this slang sense, anyway? – M.D., Andover, Mass. A: Exactly how this sense originated isn’t known. Your wife may be reassured to know, though, that before “cheesy” acquired its negative sense, […]

The following editorial appeared in the Kansas City Star on Thursday, Aug. 14: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has taken a more sensible approach to prison sentences than has Attorney General John Ashcroft. Kennedy said recently that Congress should revise federal sentencing guidelines. As he pointed out, the guidelines contribute to a prison […]

WASHINGTON – Every once in a while, you hear a story you know you will remember for the rest of your life.On July 5, 2002, Tony Dyess of Mississippi, a father of two, suffered head injuries in an auto accident. He was rushed to the hospital, but the only doctor able to perform a procedure […]

The New Year brings a happy present for lovers of the American language: Volume IV of the massive Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) is hot off the press.If you have not met DARE, let me introduce you. It is not like any other dictionary you ever saw. It is not a reference work to […]

Donald Sutherland and I have much in common. We went to the same school and graduated in the same class, but he is 6 foot 4 and I am 4 inches shorter, so I cannot be part of the new identity group that claims him as a member.Sutherland is the current poster boy for the […]

The confirmation by the Episcopal Church of the election of the openly gay priest Gene Robinson as the bishop of New Hampshire is the latest development in the continuing struggle of mainline churches to define the role of gays and lesbians in their midst.Indeed, the very convention that confirmed Bishop Robinson also authorized Episcopal priests […]

SEDONA, Ariz. – The idea of capping the non-economic damage awards that medical malpractice defendants owe their victims is currently the most popular reform suggested for the civil justice system. It also is the cruelest and most illogical idea to come along in decades.A cap of $250,000 on such awards, to be imposed by Congress […]