SINE QUA NON

The colloquy about vocabulary in recent Letters columns of the Book Review has been engaging and diverting. It brings to mind a New Yorker cartoon in which a young lady and an older man are seated in a restaurant booth. She is saying, “Otiose? Plangent? Brobdingnagian? No wonder your wife doesn’t understand you.”

This year I have one of those tear-off-a-page-daily desk calendars, with a word each day from the writing of William F. Buckley, Jr. So far I know most of the words, but it would not occur to many of us to use them in Buckley’s innovative, demiurgical way.

The Letters column is something of a sine qua non for this admiring reader. Perhaps you’ll consider putting reviews on Page 1, the Crown Books ad on the back page, and letters on the other 10 pages?

SARAH MONTOYA

MONTEREY PARK