I expect — and I hope — that someone on this blog will make an effort to write a more appropriate and complete requiem for Bill Safire than this, but until they do, this meager thing will have to suffice.

For a long time before I became a Republican and a long time after I did, Bill Safire was one of the people at the New York Times who taught me more than I knew, and probably more than I had any right to absorb from that newspaper. I’ll miss him and his columns tremendously, because when I look back on all of the reasons I ever thought about reading the Times, Bill Safire stands out so very prominently. His words were always a delight to read.

He’s the guy who made me buy that newspaper, truthfully. There isn’t anyone like him there today.

RIP Mr. Safire.

William Safire, Nixon Speechwriter and Times Columnist, Is Dead at 79