When I was a child, my friends Charlie Aldridge and Billy Seyfried liked to play baseball.  There were plenty of empty lots which we often converted into ball fields.  There was a problem because the weeds and grass had to be cut down before the ball game could start.  But the only means of cutting the weeds was a hand sickle.  This means that clearing a ball field took a prodigious amount of work.  As a result, the outfield was rarely ever cut.  All of that brings us to the basic burden of this essay.
When a ball was hit to the outfield, there was a problem.  We never ever had a new baseball that would reveal itself to us by its shiny surface.  The balls we played with were timeworn.  If a ball were lost, securing its replacement was a function of persuading one of our parents that we needed a new baseball.
My father who did maintenance work in this large subdivision that he had under his control frequently brought home balls.  The place where he worked represented the homes of wealthy people.  I am certain that the balls that were lost were simply not pursued by the wealthier children.  But in our case, when a ball was hit to the outfield a problem arose.  From time to time, the ball would disappear among the taller grass.  Technically this term is known as a “lost ball in tall grass.”
When I grew up, there were cynics who often described their compatriots who didn’t have a clue as being a lost ball in tall grass.  I would suggest that among politicians there are a good many who are lost balls in tall grass.  I wish that this were not the case.  When you have the remarks of a John Sununu claiming that Colin Powell supported Barack Obama because they are of the same race, that is a good example of a lost ball in tall grass.
I suppose that this section, taken together with an earlier essay, ought to be called “A Lexicographer’s Forgotten Memories.”  But before my race is done I had simply wanted to recall an expression that was used when a ball was lost.  Of course, when I grew up there were several cases, or perhaps millions of cases, when a person in a responsible position was so lost that he was considered a lost ball in tall grass.
Now having delivered myself of these two considerations, I will once more retire until I remember an expression that must be used to complete the lexicographer’s memory of terms that were once vital to our existence.
 
E. E. CARR
October 29, 2012
Essay 714
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Kevin’s commentary: I very much enjoy this style of short-form essays, honestly.  I sometimes wonder what Pop would have studied in college had he attended it, and more and more I lean toward linguistics or something similar.  I have also noticed that though Pop generally does not take himself very seriously, he likes to end his language essays with what seems like particular hyperbole. But on second though, hell, I don’t know where else I’d learn country speak from the 30s, or a 90-year-old’s take on ebonics, or a handful of archaic ways to refer to a penis, or piles of military slang. It really is something that you can only really hear and believe by someone who has dealt with it. So despite the way Pop tends to close this type of essay, I would contend that his language essays are truly some of the most valuable on the site. Here’s hoping that he keeps him coming.
And Pop, if you’re reading this, an essay about why you are so concerned with lexicography in particular would be well-received by yours truly.