Writing in The New York Times in 2006, William Safire, who knew from language mavens, called Mr. Steinmetz a "lexical supermaven," an accolade that in two scant words draws exuberantly on Greek, Latin, Yiddish and Hebrew.
There are impressive tragedies at a scant 1,500 words, like the backstories to single paragraphs in an old newspaper: the inn depressed to ruin by deaths in the family, the farm boy obsessed by a flirt from Arles farandoling in her velvet and lace.
The official response from the museum was lacking, at best: Kravis and Menschel spared a scant 200 words in their response letter, which claimed that "all compensation paid to Mr Lowry has been part of the museum's operating budget and reported on its tax forms" - but only since 2004.
He means no harm but his scant few words have externalised and validated your internal worries.
When you have a scant 800 words to tell your readers they should buy a CD because it's a good CD, you don't ask the guy about fucking poetry or God or Italian fascists.
And before you start to ask, Why didnt you ask deeper, more probing things? let me just say, eff you. When you have a scant 800 words to tell your readers they should buy a CD because its a good CD, you dont ask the guy about fucking poetry or God or Italian fascists.
But words like 'sacked' and 'sorry' are on the card (a scant few of the words have been released to the public), and the rest of those words will give us die-hard fans plenty to ponder until the book is released".
And though Dr. Thomason believes that the basic structure of Space English is not likely to change much from that of the mother tongue, teenagers will, of course, invent words of their own and drop words of scant use.
His latest words offer scant comfort to the traditionally faithful.
I take scant comfort from those words," Finch says.
