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Gene Weingarten: If you watched the Oscars, you probably saw the bizarre Kanyean moment when an odd redheaded woman in diaphanous purple barged on stage, rudely interrupted the speaker, and proceeded to attempt to say something coherent. That was Elinor Burkett, whom I worked with at The Miami Herald, and whose work I occasionally edited. She hasn't changed a bit.

Ms. Burkett was very talented, very opinionated, and very passionate on issues that she cared about. She was SO passionate and SO abrasively certain of the cosmic rightness of her lefty causes that she could be perceived as obnoxious. Actually, neither word quite does her justice. To paraphrase Woody Allen, it required a new word, something like "obknockshitz."

I liked Elli. But one day I was discussing her obknockshitzness with another editor, trying to put my finger on just what the quality was. And he said, "Come the revolution, Elli would be quite happy to sit on the tribunal that decides who lives and who gets executed."

Exactly right.