Given my recent public job and current blogging here, I've become used to criticism. But the other day I was called "jejune" on Twitter. It was in regard to my argument in support of air strikes on Syria, but the context is less interesting than the word.
It was the first time I've been called jejune, and I have to say that it was pretty darn exciting. I remember the word from Love and Death, which some regard as Woody Allen's best film, at least from his early, funny period.
In the relevant scene
Woody fights back by claiming that she has a lot of gall to accuse him of "jejunosity" and he claims to be the "most june man in all of the Russias."
Before you rush to look it up, the word means naive. Now, you could ask yourself why my critic didn’t just say that I was naive. After all, why use an obscure word when a common word will do just as well? The answer, I think, is that he wanted me and everyone on Twitter to know that he knew the word jejune.
And, you know what, I thank him for it. It reminded me of one of the funniest scenes in movies. Or maybe I'm just being jejune.
