In his June 18 "On Language" column in the New York Times Magazine, William Safire gives a nod to Mark Monmonier’s new book, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame. Safire briefly discusses the three "slurs" or "vulgarisms" in the title of the book. (Can you spot them? I knew you could.)
Mr. Safire further nods to us and our colleagues when he says: "This scholarly treatise of topography and cartographic analysis was given a zippy title by the swinging marketers in Chicago." We were taken aback by that word "swinging.&quot Isn’t that what the parental units were doing in Ice Storm? Does Mr. Safire know something about the Chicago marketing department that we don’t know?
And if "scholarly treatise" sounds a bit dismissive, do yourself the favor of reading an excerpt from Monmonier’s zippy little tome.