Is
A.M. Juster, and more (also known as Michael J. Astrue, head of the Social Security Administration). I finally got my hands on his volume,
The Secret Language of Women, and I like it very much. A sample:
She wakes to off key harmonies of drunks
Who fight a losing war with battle hymns
And thinks about the functionary's wit
The jokes he had for moments such as these.
or
On the Death of B.F. SkinnerThe headlines were unanimous
from
Newsweek to Le Monde
no matter what the stimulus,
B.F. did not respond
The first thing I thought when I read the post was, oh, what a clever anagram that man made of his name. Saying it aloud made me laugh. Then, I went off to find the book through my usual channels (libraries) and you can't get it anywhere; you must buy it. Then I wanted to argue about the title and the idea of women having a secret language.
So, I have been thinking about that off and on for the last week and decided that women probably do have a secret language, but even we need, or could use, a translator when speaking to one another. Maybe the next day I was at a birthday lunch with a group of old friends, the kind that were young when I first knew them. I watched our conversation, looking for secret language. Sure enough, ineluctably it was there, but while I could hear it, I still couldn't understand exactly what was being said. Very secret.
We women may each need a translator even for ourselves. The language is not just idiomatic, and it is beyond idiosyncratic. We scarcely understand one another and sometimes don't even understand ourselves. What good is a language like this?
I am looking forward to seeing what this man, Juster/Astrue made of it, even if I have to buy the book.