C’est mon opinion, et je la partage.

It’s not often you see French in American newspapers, unless it’s a conservative rail against our longtime ally France. Little of that would be printable in a family newspaper, though.

But what about, “nom de guerre”? Do you know what it means?

Reader John Appeldorn of Akron called recently after an article involving Yasser Arafat referred to him as Abu Ammar, his “nom de guerre.”

Appeldorn suggested the Akron Beacon Journal stick to words and phrases that regular people can understand. He had seen the phrase before in the paper and always wondered what it meant.

Indeed. A close reader of the Beacon Journal would have seen that French phrase three times in the past year and 57 times in the last 20 years. It’s been used in a variety of ways, but never has it been defined.

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