A. Barton Hinkle Says It's Time to Get Judgy About Incompetency

Politics is fleeting, but life's great mysteries are eternal. Let's contemplate a few. For starters: Why do we "write down" a phone number but "write someone up" for an infraction? When completing a task, why do we say "finish it up" instead of "finish it down"? It doesn't make sense, if you stop and think about it.

"Language should foster communication," writes A. Barton Hinkle. "Unfortunately, it often is used to prevent communication by obscuring truth."