Maybe it's because no one over there is going to edit him

Amazing. Norman Podhoretz is the author and editor of a half-dozen books, probably thousands of essays. Still the big cheese over at Commentary magazine. Yet he doesn't recognize a dangling modifier -- or that it can make him sound foolish.

This is the very first sentence from the very first essay -- so you think someone might have noticed -- highlighted at the top of the new issue on Commentary's website:

"Although many persist in denying it, I continue to believe that what September 11, 2001 did was to plunge us headlong into nothing less than another world war."

Wouldn't you like to meet some of those people? The ones who persist in denying Mr. Podhoretz' belief in his own certitude?

May 27, 2007 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

2 Comments

By Scott McLemee on May 28, 2007 10:09 AM

This makes me want to reread Wilfrid Sheed's review of the Pod person's first memoir. It was very smart and on target, and Sheed, at least, can find his way around a sentence.

He mentions that the overwhelming effect of the book on the reader is a desire to say, "That's okay Norman, you can keep the money."

By Andrew Shields on May 28, 2007 7:15 AM

On Book Daddy, Jerome Weeks spotted a good dangling construction in an article by Norman Podhoretz. :-)

Good eye, man!

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