LE MOT JOUE

Writers spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about words. Hanging with Mr. Roget, or the more obviously named descendant THE SYNONYM FINDER. Editors also brood alot over the mot juste, the clever headline pun, the perfect label. Since I am both a writer and an editor, I am constitutionally infected with the wordie virus. It doesn't mean I always give good word, but trust me, I never stop wanting to.

So the other day my son was watching THE A TEAM on Sun TV. He is 13 and had never heard of it. I had heard about it but had never seen it. (Oh my God! Mr. T's hair! So great!)

The A Team is some elite gang of troubleshooters. I couldn't tell who they were working for, but they chased bad guys in planes and dune buggies. They chased bad guys with "alacrity."

I am not kidding. A line of dialogue went something like this: "You'd better chase down Pedro's gang ... with alacrity."

Okay, alacrity is a good word, but not le mot juste. It made me wonder who wrote the script. Some mid-Atlantic hack who never drove a dune buggy, I'm guessing.

But actually I didn't care. I spent the entire day thinking how much I didn't care about anything. Then I realized I was infected with LASSITUDE. Lassitude was the mot juste. It was so juste I cheered up immediately and went in and watched the rest of The A Team with my kid.