Feist Me No More

N.B. The subject line does not refer to the Canadian singer best known south of 49 for pushing iPods. ("One, two, three, four..."--yeah, that one. She's very bendy about the hips, isn't she?)

I want to take a term off the table for the rest of...for the rest of eternity, if I could. For the rest of 2009, for sure. And that term?

Feisty.

It's not just because "feisty" is often paired with "gal" to describe a female who's channelling Debbie Reynolds. (Nothing against Debbie Reynolds--I loved Singin' in the Rain, but c'mon: Molly Brown, Annie Getting Her Gun...could she play anything but feisty?)

It's not even because feisty gals wink at the camera. A LOT.

No. The word is anathema because "feisty" is really a contraction formed by combining "brash" and "ignorant" with "shameless" and hiding the hybrid behind new letters.

And you can even picture why feisty is not a good thing. Simply visualize a room with Palestinians sitting on one side of a table and Israelis on the other. By some miracle, they are actually talking to each other. Now mentally place Feisty Vice President Palin in the room with them. Nuclear weapons, people. Is that really a scenario in which we want some feisty?

Well, OK--maybe the one who sells iPods. But otherwise, no.

Yes, we've seen feisty (brash + ignorant + shameless) in the White House for the past eight years. And we have survived. But we don't know by what skin on whose teeth that has been possible. We can't take any more chances.