Interviewing "Ronald Wilson Reagan"

Authors

Howard W. Bergerson

Abstract

As a rule, VIPs are likely to be interviewed only by other equal or lesser VIPs. But there is an even stronger rule, little known and indubitably of less consequence, that only VUPs are ever observed interviewing a Big Name in the literal sense, and like all bizarre aberrations in nature it is observed only rarely. I am not speaking of interviewing a Big Name in the figurative sense as Barbara Walters would do, which really means interviewing the actual person. No, I speak of interviewing only the Name itself, which in the present instance is composed of eleven distinct letters of the alphabet: A, D, E, G, I, L, N, O, R, S, and W. For the benefit of those who want a technical name for this kind of wordplay, the interviewee's half of this interview is called a lipogram on the name RONALD WILSON REAGAN, which means that the interviewee utters no words except those which can be spelled using the alphabetical letters in his name.

Recommended Citation

Bergerson, Howard W. (1982) "Interviewing "Ronald Wilson Reagan"," Word Ways: Vol. 15 : Iss. 3 , Article 2.
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol15/iss3/2