jejune

A totally foreign word to me

Definition of jejune:

adj.

1. “Not interesting; dull: ‘and there pour forth jejune words and useless empty phrases’ (Anthony Trollope). Synonym: insipid. 2. Lacking maturity; childish: surprised by their jejune responses to our problems. Synonyms: adolescent, juvenile, puerile. 3. Lacking in nutrition: a jejune diet. Synonym: insubstantial” (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
1/31/08 NYT online op-ed piece, “Seeing Red Over Hillary” by Maureen Dowd.

“…Why had it taken so long for Obama to push back against Hillary? ‘He respected her as a senator,’ the adviser replied. ‘He even defended her privately when she cried, saying that no one knows how hard these campaigns are.’ But Obama’s outrage makes him seem a little jejune. He is surely the only person in the country who was surprised when the Clintons teamed up to dissemble and smear when confronted with an impediment to their ambitions…”

My two cents:
Moon, spoon– jejune??? Wow. I had no idea…

As for the subject matter of Dowd’s op-ed piece, I’m pleading no comment. Almost. I am already tiring of the political slicing and dicing in this election year and it’s only January. Lying ahead are 9 more months of campaign rhetoric, impossible promises and endless media yakking. Make no mistake: this is an historic election. It marks the first time the Democratic party will be choosing either a woman or an African American male as their presidential candidate. This should be an exciting time, and yet I’m feeling more and more dispirited and cynical about politics and the state of our country and the world these days. I wonder if the popular vote really matters anyway, since it’s the Electoral College that got George W. Bush elected when all was said and done. Somebody help me with that one, will ya? And as for those politicians hoping to seduce us for our vote: promising the moon is, if you ask me, pretty jejune. Gag me with a spoon.

flagrante delicto

feels vaguely familiar – but isn’t, really!

Definition of flagrante delicto: (flə-grăn'tē dĭ-lĭk'tō) Latin
adv. “1. In the very act of committing an offense; red-handed. 2. In the act of having sex. 3. Literally while the crime is blazing. Caught red-handed, in the very act of a crime.” (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
1/26/08 Washington Post online article by Michael O’Sullivan, “Man vs. Beast: An Intimate Look” originally published Friday, January 18, 2008; Page WE39.

“...Let's get right to the point: 'Julie Comnick: According to Their Kind' is about the act of procreation. But the artist is less interested in sex than in politics. At once coolly clinical and subtly disturbing, the show features 20 works but centers on seven pictures of animals coupling. Of the pandas, zebras, macaques, elephants, giraffes, flamingos and lions caught in flagrante delicto, none looks especially happy -- with the possible exception of the pandas, who are just too darn cuddly to ever look miserable...”

My two cents:
The phrase in question – flagrante delicto - really peaked my curiosity. I’m neither Latin scholar nor lawyer, but I was able to assume some correct measure of meaning from the context alone. However, given that the article is about art portraying animals having sex, one might also wonder if this phrase were actual Latin or a delightfully literate pun. I mean, with “flagrant” attached to another word suggestively close to “delectable / delicious,” who could blame me for tittering just a bit? Turns out it’s bona fide Latin legalese, but I still think it’s clever and “punny.” Is that a crime? So sue me.

comity

a completely foreign word to me

Definition of comity:

1. "An atmosphere of social harmony. 2. The principle by which the courts of one jurisdiction may accede or give effect to the laws or decisions of another. 3. Comity is the courtesy one jurisdiction gives by enforcing the laws of another jurisdiction. Comity is granted out of respect, deference, or friendship, rather than as an obligation.” (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
1/22/08 NYT article, "In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had Price" by Michael Powell and Russ Buettner. This is one of a series of articles appearing in "The Long Run," a political column about the lives and careers of contenders for the 2008 Republican and Democratic presidential nominations.

“...The Citizens Budget Commission has driven mayors of various ideological stripes to distraction since it was founded in 1932. The business-backed group bird-dogs the city’s fiscal management with an unsparing eye. But its analysts are fonts of creative thinking, and Mr. Giuliani asked Raymond Horton, the group’s president, to serve on his transition committee in 1993.That comity was long gone by the autumn of 1997, when Mr. Giuliani faced re-election...”

My two cents:
Election years certainly provide plenty of political fodder for columnists and a feast for hungry voters seeking the truth. This NYT article was particularly juicy -- and it gave me a terrible, aching heartburn. But I'm not sorry. Disturbing as the news is about Rudy Giuliani's vengeful, mafioso-like tactics as mayor of New York (woh, he did wha-a-at??!!), it is also validation for those who have wondered about the "too good to be true" persona he has cultivated as a post-911 cult hero, and now a presidential candidate. Granted, running a city like New York must require true grit, nerves of steel, and a firm hand. And granted, he has charisma. I heard him deliver a fabulous post-911 motivational speech at my husband's professional veterinary convention. The guy has that "it" factor, hands down. But what he apparently doesn't have is a very good record in the political ethics department. This article serves up some of the dirty tricks Giuliani has dished out in his service to the public, and the menu isn't pretty. Go read it yourself, and see what you think. I'm not looking for perfection, nor am I naive in my expectations of any candidate. But the base, mean-spirited governing style Mr. Giuliani has demonstrated in the past -- and now brings to the presidential table -- is fairly rotten, and wholly distasteful. After reading this enlightening article, I'll be thinking more critically about Giuliani's "hero/good guy" persona. That's just something I can no longer swallow.

semiotic

All too familiar word / all too elusive understanding of the meaning

Definition of semiotics or semiology: n.
1. "the theory and study of signs and symbols, especially as elements of language or other systems of communication, and comprising semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics." (answers.com)

2. "discipline deriving from the American logician C. S. Peirce and the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. It has come to mean generally the study of any cultural product (e.g., a text) as a formal system of signs. Saussure's key notion of the arbitrary nature of the sign means that the relation of words to things is not natural but conventional; thus a language is essentially a self-contained system of signs, wherein each element is meaningless by itself and meaningful only by its differentiation from the other elements. This linguistic model has influenced recent literary criticism, leading away from the study of an author's biography or a work's social setting and toward the internal structure of the text itself (see structuralism). Semiotics is not limited to linguistics, however, since virtually anything (e.g., gesture, clothing, toys) can function as a sign." (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
1/15/08 NYT review, “Candidate Clinton Scrutinized by Women” by Michiko Kakutani, concerning a new book, Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary - Reflections by Women Writers.

“...In the end, this volume of reflections corroborates Mrs. Clinton’s own long-ago observation that she is “a Rorschach test” for voters. It also suggests that like three other famous blondes (Marilyn, Madonna and Princess Di), she’s in danger of being turned into one of those indeterminate semiotic texts academics love to deconstruct, made to signify everything from the aging of boomer dreams to the future of feminism, even as her every gesture and inflection is sifted, measured and weighed, and her actual résumé and record are increasingly shoved to the side.”

My two cents:
Ms. Kakutani calls the book “an intriguing but highly uneven anthology of reflections about Mrs. Clinton by a spectrum of well-known female writers.” I'll take her word. Right now I'm too obsessed with one little word in her review to care about the book. Somebody help me.

I have a block, I guess, about this word, semiotic(s). Actually, there's no guessing about it. I have a block about this word. Period. And it ticks me off. How many times can a person run across a word and still refuse to totally understand it? I’m an intelligent woman. I can read and understand a definition. I have read the definition for semiotic(s) – multiple times. On one level, I get it. Totally. That would be the same level at which I understand nuclear physics and the fact that I need to go on a diet. It’s an impermanent, catch-and-release level, like dealing with a slippery trout: engage, disengage, and it's over -- erase, erase, erase. I’d really like to take this word to the next level, however; to bond with it; to invite it in to be a part of my inner furnishings until it becomes frayed and worn from use, like my husband’s armchair in the den. Maybe then it – we - will be so comfortable it won’t ever leave. Yeah, wish me luck with that. In the meantime, here's your sign.

slue

Familiar word / surprise meaning!

Definition of slue:
v. tr - 1. "To turn (something) on an axis; rotate: slued the swivel chair around; sluing the boom of a crane. 2. To turn sharply; veer: braked and slued the car around." (anwers.com)

n.- 1. "A large amount or number; a lot: a slew (also slue) of unpaid bills. 2. A depression or hollow usually filled with deep mud or mire. 3. A stagnant swamp, marsh, bog, or pond, especially as part of a bayou, inlet, or backwater (also slough) 4. A state of deep despair or moral degradation." (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
1/14/08 – Atlanta Journal and Constitution crossword (from the L.A. Times). The clue: “Turn on an axis.” The answer: “slue.”

My two cents:
Today's puzzle was not altogether difficult - although a simple little 4-letter word at 70-ACROSS totally stumped me. I had to fill in all of its intersecting words in order to come up with it. Well, how about that. I’ve NEVER heard this word used this way – that is, “turning on an axis or rotating”... Huh.

Would it be accurate to say Linda Blair slued her head around and around in The Exorcist? How about refining a certain familiar, crude rejoinder by saying, “Hey Joe. Why don’t you sit on it and slue!” Wonder what would happen if I ask the gas station guys to change my oil and slue my tires?

I feel so edified.

cabal

familiar word / vague understanding of the meaning

Definition of cabal: kə-băl', -bäl'
n: "A conspiratorial group of plotters or intriguers: 'Espionage is quite precisely it—a cabal of powerful men, working secretly' (Frank Conroy). A secret scheme or plot." (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
1/14/08 - NYT article, "The Uses of the Humanities, Part Two" by Stanley Fish in his "Think Again" opinion column.

"...Some who posted put forward a negative reason for supporting the teaching the humanities. They say things like, 'if only the cabal running our government...had known a bit of history, we might not be in Iraq..."

My two cents:
Kinda like that age-old, iconic Charlie Feathers country classic, "I Forgot to Remember to Forget," this is one of those words I just keep forgetting to remember to remember. What an awesome word, cabal. I must remember it!

In his column/blog, Stanley Fish talks about the humanities, and his life's work as a humanist, that being "someone employed in a college to teach literary, philosophical and historical texts. ... The satisfaction is partly self-satisfaction – it is like solving a puzzle – but the greater satisfaction is the opportunity to marvel at what a few people are able to do with the language we all use." Well, say Hallelujah. I'm all over that. But Professor Fish is not only brilliant, he's feisty as hell. To read Fish's article is to hear not only about the validity of the humanities, but moreover, a plucky, well-argued debate over the deep, intrinsic value of/justification for humanistic studies.

hagiography

familiar word / vague understanding of the meaning

Definition of hagiography:
n. "a biography that idealizes or idolizes the person. Also a biography of saints." (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
1/9/08 – NYT online article, "The Legacy of a Pragmatic Custodian of Human Civilization" by Michael Kimmelman.

“...Announcing his retirement, the Met has produced a hagiographic press statement noting the rise in attendance (3.5 million in 1977, 4.6 million now), and the various new wings and internal reconfigurations that have caused the museum nearly to double in size under him. But attendance is a dispiriting measure of success. Any old Monet show will inflate the numbers without necessarily adding to the sum total of human understanding…”

My two cents:
I’ve been reading Michael Kimmelman’s superb art reviews for years. I can always rely on Kimmelman to keep me on my toes, and he doesn’t fail this time in his article on retiring Metropolitan Museum director and demigod Phillipe de Montebello (who, incidentally, was the speaker at my graduation last year from art school). Kimmelman’s use of the word, “hagiographic” gave me pause here. I had one of those tip-of-the-tongue - or dare I say senior - moments. Dammit I know this word – but I don’t know this word!! It occurs to me after looking it up that I first learned it during a college class in which we studied religions and saints. Hello. Biography of saints! But what an “aha” moment Kimmelman’s article provided when he used “hagiographic” as an adjective relative to Montebello’s worshipful press statement. Duh, I wish I’d thought of it.