Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 22, 2010
I Swear...
Lederer unlimited
Vic Fleming
Richard Lederer is some kind of guy! Let me explain.
You will recall that, back in March, I wrote a series of columns on oxymorons. In which I drew heavily from the verbivore.com Web site of Richard Lederer.
Along about that same time, it befell me to recruit a speaker for this year’s Clinton School Puzzle Festival.
Lederer is the author of over 300 books on language, humor and history. I’ve been citing him and seeing him cited for at least a quarter century.
So, I Googled the man, picked up the phone and dialed a number in San Diego. Not long after that I was talking to him.
He was interested in coming to Little Rock in the time frame mentioned, but he’d really rather stay the better part of a week and have a few gigs other than the Clinton Center.
“Let me see what I can do,” I said. A few phone calls later ….
… Well, suffice it to say that he was here last week.
He got in Monday night. Spoke to Little Rock Rotary Tuesday, LifeQuest of Arkansas Wednesday, Arkansas Judicial Council Thursday, American Bar Association Traffic Court Seminar Friday and Puzzle Festival Saturday.
He wowed crowds for five days. And sold a bunch of books, including his latest, The Gift of Age; his best seller, Anguished English; Word Wizard; A Treasury for Dog Lovers, A Treasury for Cat Lovers; and more.
I’d like to tell you something about the Dog Lovers book. The subtitle, “Wit and Wisdom, Information and Inspiration About Man’s Best Friend,” pretty much says it all.
In 114 user-friendly pages, the author lays out just about everything you’d ever want to know about canines, and then some.
The quotes from others alone are worth the price of admission. “Dogs are not our whole life, but they do make our lives whole” (Roger Caras) and “Properly trained, a man can be a dog’s best friend” (Corey Ford), for example.
Interested in the history of dogs? Richard’s got you covered: “Dogs, wolves, and foxes are descended from a small, weasel-like mammal called Miacis, a tree-dwelling creature that existed about forty million years ago.”
Four thousand years ago in China, dog trainers were held in high esteem.
There are now more than 400 breeds. St. Bernards weigh the most, Chihuahuas weigh the least. Great Danes are the tallest, Yorkies are the shortest.
A one year-old dog is the maturity equivalent of a 15 year-old human.
Dogs are NOT colorblind.
And, because Richard is such a language person at heart, he examines and explains all the words, phrases, and sayings that have ever involved man’s best friend. That includes hot dog, dirty dog, lucky dog, sea dog, top dog, big dog, put on the dog, a dog’s life, let sleeping dogs lie, and much more.
Doggie riddles, poems, proverbs, and so on, are collected and set forth in a most enjoyable way.
Consider some of the chapter titles: “All Dogs Go to Heaven,” “Cartoon Dogs,” “Ten Commandments for Dog Owners,” “A Dog’s Garden of Verses.”
The book itself is an attractive hard-cover, 5.75 inches wide and 6.67 inches tall. At $14, it’s a steal if, like me, you’re a word-,trivia-, statistics-buff.
I’ll have more to say about Dr. Lederer in future columns, as getting to know him last week was a real treat!
Meanwhile, check out his site: http://verbivore.com/
Vic Fleming is a district court judge in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he also teaches at the William H. Bowen School of Law. Contact him at vicfleming@att.net.
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