[Lit] William Safire on Crack

One of my favorite blogs is Language Log, a site maintained by (I think) mostly people from Penn with an interest in language. Well, actually, it's their intense scrutiny of language that makes the site so fascinating. You're torn between thinking your brain might explode, and "There but for the grace of God..."

Just the other day Mark Liberman provided an analysis of recent comments by Rumsfeld and Powell.

The first remark was Rumseld saying that he "will miss not working closely with [Powell]." Will he miss working closely with Powell, or will he miss not working closely with Powell? Or is he being intentiionally ambivalent about his feelings?

The second remark was Powell saying "After [President Bush and I] had had a chance to have good and fulsome discussions on [foreign policy], we came to mutual agreement that it would be appropriate for me to leave at this time." Fulsome — was he using the first meaning given by the OED — "characterized by abundance, possessing or affording copious supply; abundant, plentiful, full" — or the third meaning — "having a sickly or sickening taste; tending to cause nausea" — or the fifth meaning — "offensive to the senses generally" — or the sixth — "offensive to normal tastes or sensibilities; exciting aversion or repugnance; disgusting, repulsive, odious"? Or was he being equally ambiguous?

Me, I just want to see them both on the 4th season of The Surreal Life. Maybe along with Paris Hilton and Kim Jong Il.