War Of Words

Even as bombs were raining down on Afghanistan last week, another kind of weapon was being unleashed from the skies: words. Dropping leaflets and transmitting radio broadcasts from aircraft hovering above the country, the U.S. launched a hearts-and-minds campaign at the Afghan people, even as it was trying to destroy their country's Taliban government and the Osama bin Laden-led terrorist network that it harbors. Although the Defense Department has not revealed the nature of its communiques to the Afghans, if history is any guide, they are probably similar to appeals made in previous wars: Come over to our side, the good and winning side.

It is perfectly legitimate to make a case against the rezoning of Solo Cup based on the issues. But Councilman Kenneth Oliver stoops beneath the level of civilized discourse when he resorts to groundless character assassination and claims that "the fix is in" ("A better process for Solo Cup," Aug. 22). The councilman's accusation is a direct frontal assault on 2nd District Councilwoman Vicki Almond, a freshman member of the council who will cast the deciding vote on the Solo Cup rezoning issue, which is in her district.

WASHINGTON -- Dirty words. Sexist words. Racist, scatological and otherwise impolite and impolitic words.Like sticks and stones, the words that flew this weekend at the World Scrabble Championships here could hurt you -- but only in the final score. WOG openly played in a room shared with former British subjects? WOP and DAGO? SLUT? POO?OY!It's a delicious irony -- albeit one mostly lost on this crowd of literalists -- that tournament Scrabble is a word game played with words stripped of their meanings.

Sadly, much of what is taught of grammar and usage in the schools, when taught at all, amounts to rubbish, and linguistics is scarcely heard of except at the college level, and seldom there. Oh, you can go to Language Log and eavesdrop on the linguists, but the non-specialist is likely to find articles like “Diglossia and digraphica in Guoyu-Putonghua and in Hindi-Urdu” a little off-putting. Fortunately, there is now enough accessible material about language in general and linguistics in particular for the general readers as to remove any excuse for ignorance.

Beijing and Washington show how difficult a war of words is absent a common language. Don't fret about George's budget. Worry about the one Congress will enact. The Cincinnati riot carried nostalgia for the '60s too far. Lucky old Connie Morella. She gets to run in 2002 against the Kennedy of her choice. There's nothing like the traditional strike zone to make pitchers better.

The Pittsburgh Steelers' Hines Ward on stuff that's said during a game: "I mean, out on the field you're going to have a war of words. Guys are going to talk about your mother, talk about anything to try to get up under your skin. We played with one of the best of them in the league - Joey Porter. It's just words. Words don't hurt me." (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ravensinsider)

After two draft versions and ample opportunity for public comment, Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. produced a ballot description of the abortion law Marylanders will vote on in November that is as fair and accurate as a 100-word summary could be. It begins, logically enough, by addressing the main thrust of the legislation. In this case, that means informing voters that the law in question largely continues the status quo on abortion by restricting state interference in the decision.

Indianapolis -- Last season, Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Brandon Stokley returned to Baltimore to play the Ravens for the first time since leaving after the 2002 season. He caught a season-high seven passes for 83 yards in a 24-7 victory. When Stokley returns again Saturday, it will be strictly as a spectator. Stokley has been sidelined for more than three months after suffering a season-ending torn Achilles' heel against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 24. "This is a tough one, because when we played them last year, that was probably the most fun I had in a regular-season game," Stokley said yesterday in Indianapolis.

In the war of words, at least, President Bush has scored a victory.So says Robert L. Chapman, author of "The New Dictionary of American Slang," who credits the president with popularizing the expression "kick ass."Since Mr. Bush reportedly used it last month -- commenting that Saddam Hussein would "get his ass kicked" in a war -- the bold sentiment, and the somewhat less potent "kick butt," have quickly gained favor with troops and the public."It crops up everywhere now," says Dr. Chapman, who defines it as "to assert power; be rough; punish."

Score one for The Next Great Champ. A Los Angeles judge cleared the way for Fox TV's new boxing reality series to debut Sept. 7, refusing to grant a preliminary injunction sought by Mark Burnett and Jeffrey Katzenberg, producers of a rival NBC series, The Contender. Burnett and Katzenberg, whose series is scheduled to premiere in November, sought the injunction on the grounds that Fox had violated California boxing regulations in its rush to get Champ on-air before their show. While that was the core of their court case, the real fight was over the claim by producers and NBC that Fox stole the idea for its boxing series from them.

There's a reason that Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? takes place in the enervating brown light of 2 a.m., as if viewed through a glass of brandy. Outside the windows, everything is dark. Inside, it's not much brighter. The four characters have pushed beyond tired and inebriated to a stumbling exhaustion. As Nick, a young professor says, "After a while, you don't get any drunker, do you?" In other words, they are at their most vulnerable. When the social order is overturned - when spouse attacks spouse, and hosts turn upon their guests - the four don't have a chance of protecting themselves.

The Pittsburgh Steelers' Hines Ward on stuff that's said during a game: "I mean, out on the field you're going to have a war of words. Guys are going to talk about your mother, talk about anything to try to get up under your skin. We played with one of the best of them in the league - Joey Porter. It's just words. Words don't hurt me." (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ravensinsider)

The NFL is reviewing "all the [Ravens'] comments regarding the officiating," including Samari Rolle's claim that an official repeatedly called him "boy." After the Ravens' 27-24, last-minute loss to the New England Patriots, Rolle said head linesman Phil McKinnely used disrespectful language late in the game when the Ravens were arguing a penalty. "The refs called me a boy. No. 110 [McKinnely] called me a boy," Rolle said in the locker room Monday night. "I will be calling my agent in the morning and sending my complaint.

The war in Iraq spawned a political war of words yesterday, after Congress approved a $120 billion military spending measure opposed by the top Democratic presidential candidates and supported by the top Republican contenders. President Bush signed the bill yesterday after a bitter struggle with Democrats in Congress who sought unsuccessfully to tie the money to U.S. troop withdrawals. In announcing the signing, White House spokesman Tony Fratto noted that it came 109 days after Bush sent his emergency spending request to Congress.

NARVA, Estonia -- In this quiet Estonian city on a wide river separating the small Baltic nation from its mammoth Russian neighbor, the official state language, in practical terms, is also a foreign one. One hardly seems to need Estonian in Narva, where the majority of residents are ethnic Russians and where ordering a taxi, getting medicine at the pharmacy, even instruction in school, are done in Russian. The use of Estonian is so limited here that many have a similarly limited ability to speak it. That, the Estonian government says, is the problem.

Indianapolis -- Last season, Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Brandon Stokley returned to Baltimore to play the Ravens for the first time since leaving after the 2002 season. He caught a season-high seven passes for 83 yards in a 24-7 victory. When Stokley returns again Saturday, it will be strictly as a spectator. Stokley has been sidelined for more than three months after suffering a season-ending torn Achilles' heel against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 24. "This is a tough one, because when we played them last year, that was probably the most fun I had in a regular-season game," Stokley said yesterday in Indianapolis.

Before Rob Halford's new band, Fight, had released so much as a single, the lead singer's smoothly shaven head was plastered across the pages of nearly every American music magazine, usually under a banner headline proclaiming a rebirth of heavy metal.The ravenous U.S. pop press is like that; the anointing of a legend is a time-honored tradition. But so is the drowning of said legend in the critical backwash that normally follows.However, five months in on the umpteenth leg of Fight's current club tour, the flood of questions that surrounded Halford's departure into uncharted solo waters has turned into a tidal wave of adulation.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Even as the war of words between the recipients of this year's Nobel Peace Prize heated up, F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela appeared strongly committed to going ahead with South Africa's first all-inclusive election in April.Speaking in two TV interviews Thursday night, Mr. Mandela, president of the African National Congress (ANC), said that President de Klerk was guilty of terrorism for approving a raid on blacks suspected of terrorism that resulted in the deaths of five youths, two reportedly 12 years old."

The statistics haunt educators: Large numbers of students now graduating from high school struggle to write a correct English sentence in their college classes. Only about half of all African Americans graduate from high school. And in the suburbs and rural areas, too few students are being pushed into rigorous math and science courses, leaving the nation unprepared for a competitive world. Even in Maryland, where there are some great public high schools with students gobbling down a dozen Advanced Placement classes and breezing through Calculus II, thousands of high school students failed the statewide competency exams.