How sad. I personally owe much to him. He legitimized being an intelligent conservative. When I was a kid (the Sixties), and the leftwing teachers would tell me I was stupid for being a conservative, I would wave one of WFB’s books in their face and ask them to define some of the words. Thank you Mr. Buckley for turning the world on its head.
Oh yes, he was indeed famous for his encyclopedic speech, his pregnant pedant-ism and his grasp of the precise.
I can see Safire, standing there with outstretched hand, a wicked smile on his beaming face and the two of them walking along, trading great sesquipedelian soliloquies as they stroll, now never tiring.