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Gonzales' shame
Bush blames "unfair treatment" while Gonzales tries to take the high road. But invoking his late father was a new low for the scandal-dogged, self-pitying attorney general.
Joan Walsh [2007-08-27]

  • Interlude: Cliche Update

    "he refuses to hand over the reigns"

    I hope readers can forgive my nit-picking, but the word is "reins" not "reigns". I don't mean anything personal, but I've been seeing so many instances of this word substitution by columnists as well as responders that I feel compelled to comment on it.

    "Reigns" makes a certain sense, in that it refers to control or government. But the actual reference is to "reins", those leather strips that attach to a horse's bridle and are used to direct it.

    It's interesting how the more ancient usage seems to have been lost (who these days has any recollection that people once used animals for transportation??) and yet the concept of control and its corresponding homonym spelling live on.

    Once again, nothing personal. It's not your fault that you wrote the 100th instance that drove me up the wall ;-)

    -- Zandru
    [Read Zandru's other letters]
    Monday, August 27, 2007 10:37 AM
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