Posted at Thinkprogess 7/11/06

I’ll admit it. I’m an errant pedant. And I daily lament the passing of the hyphen, not because it’s useless, but I guess it’s because it’s too hard to write prose that can’t be misunderstood. Without the needed hyphen, your headline can equally well be interpreted as follows: The Four Most Overpaid White (i.e. race) House (i.e. Congress) Staffers. I’m afraid that even a term as well know [sic] as the White House needs to be hyphenated when it’s used as a modifier.