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Stuart Berg Flexner

Obituaries161 Obituaries Stuart Berg Flexner, a member of the Dictionary Society, died on 3 December 1990 at a hospital near his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. He was an active contributor to the Field of lexicography, author of books on many aspects of the language, lecturer, teacher, and consultant. We will miss his presentations and his counsel at our meetings of the Society no less than his substantial contributions to lexicography. Stuart studied English literature and linguistics at the University of Louisville, graduating summa cum laude. He published his first scholarly monograph, "A Glossary of Racetrack Terms," at the age of 16. He continued his education at Cornell University, where he taught for a short while, but soon found himself moving toward a career in editorial work and publishing. He left teaching to spend six years developing a series of books for the Mexican National Board of Education plan to combat illiteracy in that country, writing and editing books on nutrition, health, biography, and Mexican history . In 1960 he was co-author (with Harold Wentworth) and editor of the first edition of The Dictionary of American Slang. He was Managing Editor of the college textbook department of the Macmillan Company. Hejoined Random House in 1964 as a senior editor, becoming managing editor of the dictionary department in 1967 and Vice President of the Reference Division in 1968. During this time, Stuart not only served as a Senior Editor of the first unabridged edition of the Random House Dictionary of the Engluh Language (1966) of which Jess Stein was Editor-in-Chief, but wrote two books—How to Increase Your Word Power and The Family Word Finder. Stuart left Random House in 1972 seeking more time to write and lecture . During the next few years he wrote / Hear America Talking ( 1976) and Listening to America (1982). He worked as Senior Editor of the Oxford American Dictionary and helped reviseMarch's Thesaurus and Dictionary. His reputation as a major contributor to the lexicography ofAmerican slang was given a special boost when William Safire called him "The King of Slang" on the dustjacket of Stuart's Listening to America—a reputation all of us in this Society already knew of. No slouch about calling the shots as he sees them, Safire spoke for many when he called Stuart Flexner's / Hear America Talking a "masterpiece of cultural history, excitingly laid out and illustrated, that slams home the point 162Obituaries that spoken English, especially the words considered nonstandard . . . , is the wellspring of American expression." In 1980 Random House asked him to return, and in 1982 he became Editor-in-Chiefofthe dictionary department where he assumed responsibility not only for developing the second unabridged edition of the Random House Dictionary ofthe English Language (1987), but for numerous other dictionaries and reference works, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Russian dictionaries. And Stuart demonstrated his broad interests again, in part, by editing The New International Bartender's Guide and Eat Smart The Random House Guide to Diet and Nutrition. Beginning in 1981 and continuing through the beginning of 1990, Stuart Flexner cultivated a devoted following among listeners on approximately 200 radio stations in the U.S. and Canada through a syndicated feature , "The Random House Dictionary Word for the Day." His pleasant voice, warm sense of humor, and fascination with the many aspects of words and language were truly contagious, as reflected in the volume of mail and telephone calls his popular program generated. Stuart was one of those editors who made sure that he and his staff would watch for and glean from as many reliable sources as possible those expressions , words, and meanings that were entering the language. He maintained close relations with the developing DARE project as well as with the Dictionary ofOld English project in Toronto to be sure that the Random House dictionaries would incorporate their latest findings. He was an oft-quoted authority in Safire's essays for the New York Times Sunday Magazine section and he acted as the major American consultant for the nine-part BBC and PBS television series of Robert McNeil's The Story ofEnglish. Leonore C. Hauck, Managing Editor of the Random House dictionaries , had this...

Mobil's epideictic advocacy: “Observations” of Prometheus‐bound

Among “corporate rhetors,” none has been regarded as more creative and aggressive than Mobil Oil. This essay examines Mobil's use of “Observations—half‐page Sunday newspaper magazine section ads—during the years of 1976–1980. The first focus is upon “Observations” as epideictic discourse developed in response to Mobil's 1975 rhetorical situation. Attention is then turned to examples of the discourse itself and a summary of 149 “Observations.” Following the analysis are treatments of the identificational strategies used by Mobil and the Promethean myth which gives those strategies universal appeal. Finally, Mobil's “epideictic advocacy” is evaluated by the standards of effect, ethics, and art. Through “Observations” Mobil intends to be—like the Sunday newspaper—a part of America's afternoon.

Union Archives in Italy

In the last few years many historical archives have been set up?almost spontaneously?by the regional sections of both main Italian unions (CGIL and CISL). In Spring 1981 two national meetings were called on the subject. They re ported on the new phenomenon and discussed several ways of dealing with it. Some of the questions asked were: why did the phenomenon occur now? what were the inner needs prompting such an effort? Many answers may be given: new links between the university and the unions as a result of the implementation of the 150 ore plan (150 yearly hours of paid study-time are now guaranteed to the workers by many national contracts); as a consequence, the physical presence of many union cadres among the University students; the growing interest for local history in academic circles; the unions' greater interest for local history in aca demic circles; the unions' greater concern for their cultural environment. Above and beyond all such reasons, the unions have discovered during the last, hard years a need for a deeper consideration of their past in order to reach a better un derstanding of their present problems. Just such a need was the starting point for many of the newly founded union archives. We will report on one of the first of these archives: the Fondazione V. Nocentini?Archivio storico sindacale of Turin.1 The Foundation was created in 1978 by union officials, university scholars and politicians of different backgrounds with the purpose of preserving and mak ing available the papers of the labor movement. The Foundation operates in two directions: 1. Collection, filing and utilisation of documents. There are two sections: (a) historical archives, (b) newspapers and magizines. As of now, the Foundation has collected CISL papers from the whole Turin area, originating from both the cate gory unions (metal-mechanical, textile, chemical, electrical, food and restaurant, transportation, banking, school, hospital, etc.) and the central body of the union at the provincial level, both in Turin (Unione) and out of town (Zone). This repre sents about 150,000 papers covering the years 1948-1972. Private papers donated by union officials and militants (the latter belonging to both CISL and other organ izations) are also collected and separately filed. The magazine section has nearly 130 periodicals, both expired and current.2

A Woman's Place: A Follow-Up Analysis of the Roles Portrayed by Women in Magazine Advertisements

In the February 1971 issue of the Journal of Marketing Research, Alice E. Courtney and Sarah W. Lockeretz analyzed the roles portrayed by women in magazine advertisements in general interest publications [2]. Their study led them to conclude that advertisements appearing in April 1970 issues of 7 general publications did not present a full view of the variety of roles women actually play in American society. This article determines whether, during a time interval of 20 months, advertisers have responded to many critics who have claimed that too many advertisements have overemphasized the role of women as mere housewives in our society. A follow-up study was undertaken by examining advertisements appearing in the January 1972 issues of 7 general magazines-Life, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Saturday Review, Time, U.S. News and World Report, Reader's Digest, and New York Times Magazine Section. The first 6 general magazines examined were identical with those used in the original study. Since Look suspended publication, the only change in publications examined was the substitution of the January 2 issue of New York Times Magazine Section for Look. The same occupational and nonoccupational classifications of women were also used in the follow-up study. As in the original study, advertisements evaluated contained one or more adults.

Technology and Values: A Philosopher's Perspective

It sometimes seems that everyone is worrying about what has happened to our traditional values. Pick up magazine section of your local newspaper almost any Sunday and it is as likely as not to include a comment or two on contemporary in America. Newsweek, celebrating Fourth of July back in 1970, attempted to give some substance to this journalistic pastime. Its editors asked a panel of well-known historians-Eugene Genovese, Staughton Lynd, Richard Hofstadter, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Daniel Boorstin, and Andrew Hacker (reading from left to right on political spectrum)-to reflect on the of '70: . . .what ails American spirit (July 6, 1970). Of comments offered by panelists, Arthur Schlesinger's reflections most clearly focused on reasons for values (all authors except Boorstin admitted that there is a of one kind or another): America is unquestionably experiencing an extreme of confidence .... If seems today more acute in United States than anywhere else, it is not because of character of our economic system; it is because revolutions wrought by science and have gone farther here than anywhere else. ... Every nation, as it begins to reach a comparable state of technical development, will have to undergo comparable crises. It is this focus on as a causative factor in undermining of traditional values that is our concern here. All sorts of social critics agree with Schlesinger that is at root of our contemporary malaise. Not all of them blame technology, however, and a spectrum of evaluations can be set up in close parallel to Newsweek spectrum of reflections on crisis of American spirit. In what follows I want, first, to spell out a spectrum of assessments. (The phrase technology assessment has in last

World Events

Time out of mind certain people have proclaimed their own distinction and demanded the recognition and acclamation which are among the coveted perquisites of importance. Since 1918 spokesmen for the United States have insisted upon V.I.P. treatment for Americans in the American Century. Typical of this viewpoint is an article "Why Latin America is Vital to Us" in the Magazine Section of the New York Times of Sunday, April 26, 1959. Herbert L. Matthews, the author, justifies the title of his article by asserting: "Latin America is of enormous—perhaps even vital—importance to our continued existence as a free and prosperous nation."This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Instructive clinical case reports

In my introduction to this presentation I expressed the hope that the cases described will be of interest to you and assist you in the care of your patients. Even if you are aware of some or all of the points which I emphasized, they may still give you an idea of what others overlook. You, in turn, through conversation and lectures, can help other practitioners to avoid such errors and, by adding to their knowledge, benefit their patients. It may seem to you that I have turned preacher. I will risk this accusation, because the thought that I wish to express is important. There were times when knowledge and experience were kept secret by the practitioners of the healing arts. For instance, for more than three generations (starting in the early part of the seventeenth century) the Chamberlen family in England kept to themselves the invention of an obstetrical forceps to be used in difficult labors. I do not think that this happens today. However, general practitioners and specialists in both the medical and dental professions do not cooperate sufficiently, and jealousy is often evident. The result is that the patients suffers. All my professional life I have endeavored to improve professional relations between the members of these professions, and I feel certain that meeting one's colleagues socially and at lectures and clinics helps a lot. Let us return now to our subject. We have dealt with disease and its treatment. However, this is not enough. Our aim today is prevention of disease and the maintenance of health. To accomplish it we recommend periodic health examination, which in our field means prophylaxis, routine x-ray examination, and pulp testing at regular intervals. In closing, I wish to quote from an interview entitled: “Prescription for Medicine: Dr. Gregg, Lasker Award Winner, Outlines a Medical Philosophy” by Leonard Engel, which appeared in the New York Times Magazine Section (Nov. 4, 1956). In this article Dr. Alan Gregg, who was for twenty-six years first the director of the medical sciences division of the Rockefeller Foundation and then vice-president of the Foundation, said: “Recently, our way of referring to health and illness has begun to change. We hear less of ‘disease’ and more of health maintenance, health protection and the health professions. This change signifies a larger horizon, a larger task, but it also aims at a more positive and desirable goal for medicine than the mere absence of disease. The positive goal of maintaining health will be more nearly realized when the public has been educated to ask for it.” Let us subscribe to this program, by coordinating more closely the efforts of the dental and medical professions.