My Impromptus today is a smorgasbord, as usual. I have some Biden, some Trump. Some Communists, some Nazis. Some language, some music. And Al Michaels, the great sportscaster (who has given us the phrase “Internet compost”). Try it here.
The latest edition of my music podcast, Music for a While, is devoted to Paul Johnson. The great historian and journalist passed away last month. For the appreciation I wrote of him, go here. There is a fair amount of music in that appreciation, because there was a fair amount of music in Paul Johnson. A lot, actually. Music meant a great deal to him.
I have now put together a program of music related to Paul: his work, his tastes. Find it here.
There is Mozart. (Mozart was one of his biographical subjects.) There is Willie Nelson (his song “Crazy”). There is Schumann. (As I said in my appreciation, I have a painting by Paul titled “Listening to Schumann.”) The program ends with “Look for the Silver Lining,” which Paul said “sums up my view of life.”
Let’s have a piece of reader mail — responding to something I wrote in this Impromptus. Said I, “George F. Will has written a column typical of him: beautiful and tough-minded. That is an awfully appealing combination, to some of us.” (The Will column in question is here.)
Says a reader,
Jay,
Today, in reference to George Will, you said “awfully appealing.” Since I was a kid, this use of “awfully” has puzzled me. (I was a weird kid.)
“Awful” being a negative adjective, it’s odd that “awfully” functions as a multiplying positive emphasis. Seems to me that “awfully ugly” makes sense, but “awfully beautiful” is something of an oxymoron.
I realize that it is a standard usage, so it’s not wrong, it just seems awfully strange.
Yes. We find something terribly interesting. Awfully nice. “That’s awfully nice of you.” We even judge something “Terrific!” — meaning great, wonderful, like an ice-cream sundae.
Such are the idiosyncrasies — idiot-syncrasies — of our rich, wide English language.
“That story was incredible!” You mean you didn’t believe it? No, you may mean you liked it a lot. Charles Moore once wrote of a young person who, enthusing about a Credo, said, “It’s incredible!”
I will leave you with a Gershwin song. Wrote Ira,
’S wonderful
’S marvelous
You should care for me’S awful nice
’S paradise
’S what I love to see