E-mailer Howard Nute wrote to me today about my use of the word “kerflooey” on the TV talk-show program Horizon on Friday evening. He suggested, as host Richard Ruelas did on air, that kerflooey may not be an actual word. Nute wrote, “Is that damn UA journalism degree getting you where you need to be?”

Sometimes I find that the existing accepted limits of the English language just aren’t wide enough to fully express every nuance in my broad range of critical thinking. Thus, the need to invent words from time to time.

So for the benefit of Nute, Ruelas and anyone who tuned in Friday, here’s a definition:

Kerflooey: n., the consequence of an idea, policy or law devised by Arizona politicians in which the results are sudden, far from their intended purpose, and detrimental to the public good.

Or something like that…

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Programming notes, You ask; I answer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.