Monosyllablist.(Remembering WFB)(William F. Buckley, Jr.)(In memoriam)

ON the eve of the 2004 election, William F. Buckley Jr. was reflecting on criticism of the networks re the 2000 debacle in Florida. He noted that, in the wake of protests, the broadcasters had abandoned their old ways, in which "computers projected winners based on hygienic extrapolation." And then he added: "There ain't no extrapolation these days that will make the protesters go away."

We know Bill Buckley's the go-to guy for your "logical postulates" and whatnot. But "ain't" is a Buckley word, too--although I'm pretty certain that's the first time the English language ever had a need for the formulation "There ain't no extrapolation." There are chaps who use words like "extrapolation" and there are those who say "ain't" but not many who deploy both. Bill was one of the few, though he didn't always get credit for it. Even my old friend Conrad Black claimed that Bill was hopeless at Scrabble because he didn't know any words under eight letters--which is, in that game, where the real action is.

Oh, I don't know. Here he is, from 1996, with a good 'un of just three letters: "Phil Gramm did not wow them in New Hampshire."

Bill believed in le mot juste, and, if le mot juste was a vernacular monosyllable, that was what he'd type. I once had a long conversation with him about Romano ...