What a blow to find the word hosted in the otherwise wonderful piece on Robert Benchley in your April/May 1986 issue. It would have been so easy to say instead that Benchley “was host for a popular variety show on radio.” And how nice it would have been if an editor had made the change. Oh, I know, I know. The language changes, and the dictionary lists host as a verb, or so I’ve been told. I can’t bear to confirm it.

But if it’s now acceptable to use hosted in American Heritage, of all places, can gifting people and additional writing horrors be too far down the road?