Of shoes

First Annual ADA Science Writers Award Over 2 0,000 articles relating to dentistry ap­ pear in the nation’s public press each year. Many have wide reader appeal, and their number is in­ creasing steadily because o f the public’s rising in­ terest in dental health. Yet there is a need for more and better reporting on the advances o f dentistry in terms that are understandable and interesting to the public. To encourage capable science writers to ap­ ply some of their talents to dentistry, the American Dental Association, with the support o f Lever Broth­ ers Company, has established a Science Writers Award program. The object o f the program is “. . . to broaden and deepen the public understanding o f dental disease, dental treatment and dental re­ search. . The first two $ 1,000 awards were presented dur­ ing the A ssociation’s 1966 annual session in Dallas, one to Ronald Kotulak, Chicago Tribune, for his series o f six newspaper articles on dentistry, and one to Norman LobsenzandA . Norman Craninfor their article on children’s dental health which appeared

Opinion of Other Journals

Of Shoes Cliches are like old shoes: They are un­ sightly and we know we ought to toss them out, but we continue to wear them because they have grown so comfortable. Cliches usually occur as pairs o f words, and one without the other is as un­ thinkable as a left shoe without a right. For example, is it possible to think o f a majority that is not vast, a public that is not general, a trans­ lation that is not loose, data that are not meaning­ ful, reasons that are not valid, studies that are not scientific, descriptions that are not classical, efforts 1238

in Redbook magazine. The winners were selected from newspaper and magazine entires submitted from all parts o f the nation. The judging panel com ­ prised a dean o f a university school of journalism, a university dean o f sciences, a dental school dean, a dental editor, and the executive secretary o f the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing. In addition, five Meritorious Achievement Awards were granted. In the newspaper category, these went to Carol Nation, Abilene ReporterNews; Ruth Winter, Newark Star-Ledger; and Bernard Kelly, Denver Post. Albert Q. Maisel, Reader’s Digest, and Ben Merson, Good Housekeeping, received Meritorious Achievem ent Awards in the magazine category. With the establishment o f the Science Writers Awards, the American Dental Association joins other organizations in fostering improved science writing for lay readers. It is a worthy program and one which over the years will attract increasing num­ bers o f qualified science writers.

that are not prodigious, difficulties that are not inherent, impotence that is not sexual, guidelines that are not helpful, pictures that are not clinical, areas that are not key, sums that are not lump, or a cry that is not far? Is there an armamentarium in the house that does not belong to a physician, a crux that has no problem, an index that has no suspicion, a burden that has no proof, or a comedy that has no errors? A manuscript that com es dressed in such cliches is hardly elegant or stylish, but at least it is com ­ fortable. What is more mysterious are the contribu­ tions that show up in two left shoes or two right shoes and pretend to relax in such redundancies as previously published, best possible, present time, individual patient, useful aid, clinical symp­ toms, and bare essentials. Our favorite cliche, how­ ever, defies classification: Just once we would like to see someone proceed down the ladder o f evolu­ tion. JAMA, Vol. 197, Ju ly 18, 1966. Reprinted by permission.