“One time, years ago, the veteran Baltimore newspaperman, H.L. Mencken, was checking copy coming in from the night editor and sighing at the rising number of errors he was noticing, errors of fact but also of syntax, and even some idioms that didn’t sound quite right. He shook his head and said, as much to himself as to the editor at his side: ‘The older I get the more I admire and crave competence, just simple competence, in any field from adultery to zoology.'”
Alistair Cooke, “Memories of the Great and the Good” (courtesy of George Will)
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
An ArtsJournal Blog