Time must have a slop

Time must have a slop

The American republic is tottering toward its 250th birthday like a character in a Jimmy Buffett song: debauched and in debt, but with its Stanley cup half full and its flip-flops still flapping. Meanwhile, American English remains forever young, a furnace of deregulated creativity. The French language is regulated by the “immortals” of the Académie Française. This is the linguistic equivalent of dirigiste economics, and about as good for growth…