The Joys and Sorrows of Being a Word Snob
"Ballpark figure" is a nice, fairly new phrase meaning "rough approxima- tion" (such as the estimates of attendance at a ball game). But it seems that America has entered the era of ballpark language where words are used approximately;they mean only roughly what we think they mean. So observes Joseph Epstein, singling out for disdain educators, heiresses, bu- reaucrats, TV anchormen, ecologists, and social scientists-among the many "quasi-semi-demi-ostensibly educated"...