notes & asides.

* Dear Mr. Buckley: After reading Gilbert Quezada's letter to you (N&A, May 9) wherein he discussed the word "encephalophonic," I am somewhat hesitant to call your attention to an incorrect word usage in your On the Right column (same issue), "Can We Stop Illegals?" I refer to the sentence: "The Berliners began with barbed wire, which grew to high cement walls." The proper word is "concrete," not "cement." Cement is a mixture of alumina, silica, lime, and iron oxide, and when mixed with a mineral aggregate (as sand and gravel) and sufficient water creates a mass called concrete. Cement is the "glue" that holds the whole mess together; concrete is the final product.

Cordially, Jack Bober San Diego, Calif.

Dear Mr. Bober: Thanks and well put. Which of the two is more bulletproof? Cordially, WFB 

* Dear Mr. Buckley: I am in a state of confusion due to the poor grammar used by our nation's advertising copywriters. An item on sale is breathlessly touted as being "up to 50 percent off, and more." Now I ask you, how can something be up to 50 percent off, and more, at the same time? In addition, I see countless ads offering "free gifts." I have rarely in my life ever paid for a gift, and if I did so it would cease so be a gift and become a purchase. Are you able to help me with what these advertisers are saying? My head is spinning.

Regards, Russell R. Boedeker Portland, Ore.

Dear Mr. Boedeker: Well, I can try. Law 1: Merchandising prose is idiomatic and seeks regularly to take advantage of non-mortal parrying by intended victims. So, being "up to 50 percent off, and more," is merchandise malt for: "Our sales bring prices down by 50 percent, and here and there by more than 50 percent." Since the merchandisers were on a roll, they might have gone on to say, "Where the prices are down by more than 50 percent, you may think of them as in the order of gifts." Your (our) imagination should be able to handle that, no? Cordially, WFB

* Dear Mr. Buckley: In a letter in N&A (June 6) appeared this sentence offered as favoring usage of "data" in the singular: "Data is not what they used to be." To be proper, wouldn't this usage demand the pronoun "it" in place of "they"? If not, shouldn't the verb, instead of "is," be "are"? This example was also used with regard to the usage of "media"; however, "datums," "medias," and "mediums" are perfectly acceptable, according to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition. There was also a question about the usage of "news," which is described dictionary-wise as "noun, plural but singular in construction." So, "news" is always is-verbed, but never are-verbed (okay, no such word as "verbed"), never mind what Slick Willie says "is" is, or perhaps what "are" are. One may not say, then, "Datums and mediums are combined to make newses," but could perhaps say, "Data/datums and media/ medias/mediums are combined to make news."

Warmest regards, Jim Clark Lexington, Ky.

Dear Mr. Clark: You have a very high calling. Proposed title for your book: Clark-Clarity for Verb Quandriers. That last is a neologism, but you can give me credit. Congratulations, WFB

* Dear Mr. Buckley: What do you make of this from The New Yorker (May 2): "For the people waiting outside it, in a line to view Pope John Paul II's body which stretched for more than three miles, the arms of Bernini's great flanking colonnades were ahead ..."

Cordially, Sayre Miller Clovis, Calif.

Dear Mr. Miller: I take that to be The New Yorker's idea of the post obitum indulgence of the late Holy Father.

Cordially, --WFB