Jonah – I am a DC based television writer and earlier today I turned to a thesaurus. I was looking for a good synonym for the word “advanced.” (I am writing about dinosaurs.) I went to one of my usual sources, Thesaurus.com – – the on-line version of the esteemed Roget’s Thesaurus. So just what words are listed as synonyms for “advanced?” – – how about “liberal” or “progressive.” Main Entry: advanced Part of Speech: adjective Definition: ahead in position, time, manner Synonyms: avant-garde, breakthrough, excellent, exceptional, extreme, first, foremost, forward, higher, late, leading, liberal, precocious, progressive, radical, state-of-the-art*, unconventional, cutting-edge, leading-edge Then, just for fun, I clicked on the word “liberal” – – and got such hits as “enlightened,” “humanitarian,” “intelligent,” “rational,” “unbiased,” unprejudiced” and “unbigoted” – – as for antonyms try “conservative” and “narrow-minded.” Main Entry: liberal Part of Speech: adjective Definition: progressive Synonyms: advanced, avant-garde, broad, broad-minded, catholic, enlightened, flexible, free, general, high-minded, humanitarian, indulgent, intelligent, interested, left, lenient, loose, magnanimous, permissive, radical, rational, reasonable, receiving, receptive, tolerant, unbiased, unconventional, understanding, unorthodox, unprejudiced, humanistic, latitudinarian, libertarian, reformist, unbigoted Antonyms: conservative, narrow, narrow-minded I am a great fan of your columns – – and maybe somewhere in the creeping leftism of something as supposedly benign as a thesaurus will give you some fodder for some future writings…

While annoying, none of this surprises me. I can’t tell you how many people have told me that my book is idiotic on its face because the dictionary says so. By the way, my dad wrote about the deep-seated bias of dictionaries for the Wall Street Journal a few years ago.

Oh and the kind words are appreciated and *not* annoying.