COMING TO TERMS — William Safire

When William Safire delineates the difference between "misinformation" and "disinformation" or "distances himself" from cliches, people sit up and take notice. Which is not to say that Safire's readers always take the punning pundit at his word: they don't, and he's got the letters to prove it.

Among the entries in "Coming to Terms," this all-new collection of Safire's "On Language" columns, you'll read the repartee of Lexicographic Irregulars great and small. John Haim of New York sets in concrete what properly to call a cement truck, while Charlton Heston challenges an interpretation of Hamlet's "to take arms against a sea of troubles" and Gene Shalit passes along his favorite Yogi Berra-ism.

Bringing them all together are dozens of Safire's most illuminating and witty columns, from "Right Stuffing" to "Getting Whom." When William Safire comes to terms, there's never a dull moment.