In Love with Norma Loquendi

This latest collection of Safire's (Quoth the Maven, LJ 8/93) internationally syndicated columns on language will appeal to language buffs and mavens. How did it come to be that one kind of bubba dispenses chicken soup while another is a Southern football player? What does it mean to "cock a snook"? In the language of diplomacy, how do contact, dialogue, and exchange differ? Though a political conservative, Safire is a linguistic liberal, accepting, though sometimes reluctantly, that language evolves. "It's me" sounds okay. Since his chapters can be read randomly, readers less fascinated by D.C.-speak than Safire can skip those sections.