Going Nucular Read online

  Interests

  Ismatism

  Isolationism

  “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings,”

  Italian American

  Jejeune

  Jesus

  Jihad

  Jobs and growth

  Journalese

  Just cause

  Juvenile delinquent

  K- (prefix)

  Kaafir

  Kafkaesque

  Kluge

  Knack

  Kowtow

  Lackadaisical

  Lambent

  Latte liberal

  Leftist

  Legend

  Liberal

  Liberalism

  Liberal-leftist

  Liberation

  Liberty

  Life

  Lifestyle

  “Lighten up,”

  Like

  Likelier

  Like wow!

  Losing face

  Lowbrow

  Low-hanging fruit

  Lubricious

  Lucite

  Lucubrate

  Lucubration

  Lust

  Lustful

  -ly (suffix)

  Machiavellian

  Madding

  Mainstream

  Manual transmission

  Marriage

  Me-firstism

  Memory

  Men’s wrestling

  Me-tooism

  Middlebrow

  Middle class

  “Middle-class liberals,”

  Middle-of-the-roadism

  Mighty

  Minimal

  Mission-critical

  Mission statements

  Molecular

  Mom-ism

  Mongoloid

  Monstrous

  Morale

  Mother

  Mugwump vote

  Munge

  Munich

  NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization,)

  Nefarious

  Negro

  Negroid

  Never

  Newspeak

  News, the

  Nice-nellieism

  Nobrow

  Not

  Nuclear

  “Nuclear,”

  Nugatory

  Nylon

  “Of a mature age and 70 years young,”

  O.K.

  Older

  Old guard

  -omatic (suffix)

  “On the up and up,”

  Opening the floodgates

  Opportunity

  Opsi- (prefix)

  Opsigamy

  Opsimath

  Orlon

  Orwellian

  Oversharing

  Pacification

  Paper book

  Particular

  Partition

  Patriot

  Patriotic

  Patriotism

  P.D.Q.

  Peace

  Pearl Harbor

  Peer pressure

  Performancewise

  Personal responsibility

  Petard

  Physical therapy

  Pinko

  Plagiarism

  Plaintively

  Plastic

  Pleather

  Politricks

  Polyester

  Polysyndeton

  Pop

  Populism

  Populist

  Post-

  Postcapitalism

  Postmodernism

  Potatoes

  Pre-

  Precocious

  Prejudice

  Prepubescent

  Preschool

  Prewar

  Private life

  Private sector

  Problems

  Promiscuous

  Propaganda

  Protest

  Protestor

  Provide

  Prurient

  P’s

  Quibble

  Quite possibly

  Racism

  Radar

  Ratchet

  Rayon

  Rebarbative

  Rebels and rebellion

  Receipt

  Recuperate

  Reel

  Régime

  Regime change

  Regrettable

  Rejectionists

  Rents

  Republic

  Resistance, the

  Responsibility

  Retronyms

  Revenue enhancement

  Riff

  Rightist

  Right wing

  Rile

  Road warriors

  “Rogue states,”

  Roil

  Roll

  Rotary dial

  Say

  Schadenfreude

  Scrog

  Second superpower

  Security

  Semantic

  Senior citizen

  September

  Serendipity

  Sexism

  S/he

  Shit

  Shock and awe

  Shocking

  Significantly

  Silent movie

  Slated

  Slick

  Slippery slope

  Slungshot

  Snafu

  Sniffy

  Snowball effect, the

  S.O.B.

  Socialite

  Solutions

  Special interests

  Spelling bee

  Spelling matches

  Spelling schools

  Spry

  Status symbol

  Steam locomotive

  Stonewalling

  Styrofoam

  Succedaneum

  Suitor

  Superannuated

  Surface mail

  Synergies

  Tarnation

  Tenderly

  Tergiversation

  Terrible

  Terrorism

  Terrorist

  Teutonic

  The

  Thin edge of the wedge, the

  Third Age

  Thought police

  Thugs

  Tragedy

  Tree-density reduction

  Trog

  Ugh

  Um

  Unacceptable

  Uncompromising

  “Under God,”

  Unidentified flying objects

  Uninterested

  Unperson

  Unspeakable

  Unutterable

  Upper class

  Urgent Fury

  U.S.

  Veep

  Venture capitalist

  Verdun

  Vinyl

  Virtual

  Vision statements

  Vivisepulture

  Voluntary regulation

  Volvo liberals

  Waterloo

  Will

  Woo

  Wops

  Working class

  Wrath

  Wrinkly

  Xanthosis

  Xenophobia

  Yadda-yadda

  You know

  Yuppie

  Subject Index ]

  Abbas, Mahmoud

  Abbreviations

  ABC

  Abélard, Pierre

  Abortion, legal

  Abstinence-only movement

  Abstraction

  ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)

  Acrostics

  Action words

  Adams, Abigail

  Adams, John

  Admission process to preschool

  Adverbs

  African, The (Courlander)

  Aged, age-disparing word against

  Airlines program, for seniors

  Albright, Madeleine

  Alexander II, Czar

  Alger, Horatio

  Allen, Steve

  All-news networks

  Allport, Gordon

  Al Qaeda

  Amanpour, Christine

  Ambrose, Stephen

  American Dialect Society

  Americ
an English

  American Flag

  American Held Hostage (television program)

  American Heritage dictionary

  Americanism

  American Notes (Dickens)

  Americans for Democratic Action

  America the Beautiful (Sherr)

  America the Beautiful (song)

  AmeriCorps volunteer initiatives

  Amis, Martin

  Anderson, Benedict

  Anderson, John

  Animal Farm (Orwell)

  Annan, Kofi

  Antic Muse

  Anti-terrorism bill

  Arabs

  and assassins

  and compromise

  and place names

  Arendt, Hannah

  Aronoff, Mark

  Ashcroft, John

  Augustine, Saint

  Baby boomers

  Bank accounts, senior

  Barkley, Alban

  Barney, Tina

  Barzun, Jacques

  Bates, Katharine Lee

  Battle Hymn of the Republic (song)

  Bel Air automobile

  Bellamy, Francis

  Bennett, William

  Benton, Brook

  Berlin, Irving

  Berlin, Isaiah

  Berlusconi, Silvio

  Bevan, Aneurin

  Biden, Joseph

  Big Test, The (Lemann)

  Big Three carmakers

  Bin Laden, Osama

  Biographia Literaria (Coleridge)

  Björk

  Blair, Tony

  Blitz, Jeff

  Blumenbach, Johannes

  Boesky, Ivan

  Bonds, Barry

  Born in the U.S.A. (song)

  Bowie, David

  Branding

  Braveheart (motion picture)

  Bremer, Paul

  Brennan, William

  Brie

  Britain

  Brooks, David

  Brooks, Garth

  Browder, Earl

  Bruce, Lennie

  Bryan, William Jennings

  Buckley, Lord

  Buckley, William F.

  Buffett, Warren

  Bullfighter language program

  Burger King

  Burke, Edmund

  Bush Dyslexicon, The (Miller)

  Bush, George, H.W., Sr.

  Bush, George, W., Jr.

  and “evil,”

  and freedom and Iraq war

  and middle-of-the-roadism

  misuse of language by

  and popularism

  and prescription drug program

  propaganda of

  and State of Union speech

  and term for “resistance” in Iraq

  and word “crusade,”

  Business and doublespeak

  Business writing

  Cable news shows

  Caesar, Sid

  Cafferty, Jack

  Caffin, Charles

  Camel’s nose

  Cameron, Julia

  Campaign contributions

  Cappon, Jack

  Capra, Frank

  Carelessly (song)

  Carnegie, Andrew

  Carter, Jimmy

  Cartier-Bresson, Henri

  Castro regime

  Catherine of Braganza

  Caucasian

  Chalabi, Ahmad

  Chamberlain, Neville

  Change in meaning of words and expressions

  Chase, Chevy

  Chastity belts

  Cheney, Dick

  Chesterton, G.K.

  Childers, Thomas

  Chirac, Jacques

  Christian conservatism. See also Conservatives

  Christo

  Chrysler

  Churchill, Winston

  Cicero

  Civil liberties

  Civil unions

  Clark, Dick

  Clarke, Richard

  Clark, Eugene

  Class, categorization of

  Clinton, Bill

  Clinton, Hillary Rodham

  CNBC

  CNN (Cable News Network)

  Cold War

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

  College Board

  Collins, Wilkie

  Color-blindness

  Comedy Central Channel

  Communism

  Communist sympathizers in America

  Community, national sense of

  Conjunctions, repetition of

  Conservatives

  and attacks upon postmodernism

  calling themselves “right wing,”

  and class

  and Clinton’s middle-of-the-roadism

  and freedom

  and patriotism

  and racism

  and radio talk shows

  and use of polysyndeton

  and use of term fascist

  “Contract with America,”

  Coolidge, Calvin

  Corfam

  Corporate culture

  Corporate jargon

  Coughlin, Father Charles

  Coulter, Ann

  Courlander, Harold

  Courtship, language of

  Creel Committee

  Creel, George

  Crimean War

  Crimes and Misdemeanors (motion picture)

  “Cross of Gold,”

  Daily Show

  Davis, Angela

  Davis, Peter

  D.C.

  D-Day invasion

  Deadwood

  Dean, Howard

  Dear Plastic (song)

  Declaration of Independence

  de la Renta, Oscar

  Deloitte Consulting

  Democratic party

  Denver, Bob

  Department of Health and Human Services

  Desdemona

  Diary of a Nobody, The (Grossmith, George and Weedon)

  Dickens, Charles

  Dictionaries

  Dilbert

  Dixie Chicks

  Doublespeak

  Douglas, Michael

  Drucker, Peter

  Dryden, John

  Dukakis, Michael

  Dunn, Alan

  DuPont

  Dylan, Bob

  Eastman, Max

  Educational Testing Service

  Edwards, John

  Eichmann, Adolf

  Eisenhower, Dwight D.

  and domino effect

  and language

  and State of Union speech language

  Elements of Style, The (Strunk and White)

  Elgin, Lord

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo

  Eminem

  Enron

  Epstein, Joseph

  Ethnic stereotypes

  Eve of Destruction (song)

  Fake Plastic Trees (song)

  Fallacy of the heap

  Fallows, James

  Falwell, Jerry

  Far from Heaven (motion picture)

  Fenichell, Stephen

  Finch, Peter

  First Blood (motion picture)

  Fischer, David Hackett

  Fisher, Marc

  Fish, Stanley

  Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, The (Goodwin)

  Flag, American

  Flag-burning

  Fleischer, Ari

  Flynt, Larry

  Folk etymology

  Follett, Wilson

  Foner, Eric

  Ford Motor Company

  Four Freedoms

  Fowler, H. W.

  Fox News Channel

  Franklin, Benjamin

  Frank, Thomas

  Franzen, Jonathan

  Freedom Council

  French

  and change of regimes

  and dates signifying events

  French Revolution

  Friedman, Alexis

  Gandhi, Mahatma

  Garofalo, Janeane

  Gay couple

  Gehrig, Lou

  General Motors

  Gettysburg Addres
s

  Gibbs, Wolcott

  Gibson, William

  Gingrich, Newt

  Ginsberg, Alan

  Girl Scouts of America

  Gitlin, Todd

  God Bless America (song)

  Godwin, William

  Goffman, Erving

  Goldberg, Jonah

  Golden Bowl, The (James)

  Goldwater, Barry

  Gonzáles, Elián

  Goodwin, Doris Kearns

  Google

  Gore, Al

  Goss, Porter

  Gove, Michael

  Gove, Philip

  Graduate, The (motion picture)

  Graham, G. F.

  Grammatical correctness

  Grand Larousse French dictionary

  Grant, Ulysses S.

  Grateful Dead

  Greeley, Horace

  Greenberg, Clement

  Greene, Graham

  Green, Matthew

  Greenwald, Dorothy

  Gregori, Franceso de

  Grossmith, George and Weedon

  Growing Old in America (Fischer)

  Grubman, Jack B.

  Guillotine

  Guiness, Alec

  Haley, Alex

  Hanson, Victor Davis

  Harte, Bret

  Haynes, Todd

  Hayworth, J.D.

  Hazlitt, William

  HBO

  Headlines, newspaper

  Head Start

  Hearst, William Randolph

  Hearts and Minds (film documentary)

  Hefner, Hugh

  Heggy, Tarek

  Helplessly Hoping (song)

  Henry, Patrick

  Hewison, Robert

  Hipsters

  Hitchens, Christopher

  Hitler, Adolf

  Hobsbawm, Eric

  Hoffman, Abbie

  Holiday, Billie

  Holmes, Oliver Wendell

  Homosexual couple

  Hood, John

  Hoover, Herbert

  Horatio Alger Society

  Horowitz, David

  House Committee on Un-American Activities

  Howells, William Dean

  Human resources departments

  Hume, David

  Ickes, Harold

  Impala automobile

  Infomercials

  Initialisms

  Innocents Abroad, The (Twain)

  Internet and Websites

  Iraq

  and freedom and liberty

  going to war in and compromise

  pronunciation of word

  and regime change

  and self-consciousness regarding language

  term for “resistance” in

  and use of word “appeasement,”

  I Shall Laugh Purely (Jeffers)

  Italians

  Italian Social Movement

  It’s a Wonderful Life (motion picture)

  Ivanhoe (Scott)

  Ivins, Molly

  Jackson, Janet

  Jack, Wolfman

  Jacobins

  James, Henry

  Jameson, Fredric

  Jane Eyre (Brontë)

  Jarrell, Randall

  Jefferson Airplane

  Jefferson, Thomas

  Jeffers, Robinson

  John Paul II, Pope

  Johnson, Hiram

  Johnson, Hootie

  Johnson, Lyndon B.

  Johnson, Samuel

  Journalese

  Jurassic Park (motion picture)

  Just Cause, Operation

  Kaczynski, Ted

  Keegan, Kevin

  Keller, Jon

  Kemp, Jack

  Kennedy, Kathleen

  Kenton, Stan

  Kerry, John

  Kertesz, Andre

  Key, Francis Scott

  Kimmitt, Mark

  King, Edward

  King James Bible

  King, Martin Luther, Jr.

  King, Peter

  Kinsley, Michael

  Kirkpatrick, John

  Klein, Joe

  Knox, Edward