Commentary Magazine : Sometimes I Forget That I Am Also A Good Writer

and then something comes along to remind me. Like this.
So, I wrote a letter to Commentary Magazine:

When I began reading Peter Loatin’s review of Rebecca Goldstein’s new novel 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, I realized I had to start a list. A list of new words I’d never heard or read before and words I’d seen before but never bothered to define. This is a task I’ve been postponing for quite some time, probably since I learned to read some 59 years ago. I’ve always sort of trusted that unusual words would eventually work themselves into my conscious vocabulary over the years if it seemed important.
The words are apodictic, tropism, fustian, adumbrate and asymtotic. Well, I don’t strictly need to educate myself on adumbrate, it’s self-explanatory in context, and I still have no intention of ever using it in a sentence. As for tropism, I long ago decided it can stay in the undefined file forever. So can the others, come to think of it. So much for the list.
But I have to ask Mr. Loatin and Mr. Loatin’s editor if those words were really necessary to the review or whether it’s possible they may interfere with its purpose. Why, by the way, is fustian associated with academia? Guess I’ll have to look that one up.
I still want to read the book, though, which is where I was when I started to read the review. I am not so easily discouraged.

Yours truly,

Do you think they'll publish it? Do they notify you when they publish a letter? Who cares? Well, I'd like it if they published it. Maybe they'll ask me to do the next book review. Oh, stop it.