Alessandra Stanley Vocabulary Decoder, Vol. 2

TV scribe Alessandra Stanley tossed around a veritable cornucopia of S.A.T. words in her NY Times column today on CBS programs made in the image of Leslie Moonves. Since you of course know what “acolytes,” “insouciance” and “sulfurous” mean—not to mention “omniscient,” which all BCBeat readers of course are– we’ll skip those.

Now, on to the rest. And thanks to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for the definitions.

CHADOR: A large cloth worn as a combination head covering, veil, and shawl usu. by Muslim women

OZYMANDIAN: It’s not in the dictionary, so I have no idea what it means. Probably something to do with Ozymandias from that old poem. Or Ozzy Osbourne.

LUGUBRIOUS: Mournful, esp. exaggeratedly or affectedly mournful.

LÈSE-MOONVES: Variation of lèse-majesté, a crime committed against a sovereign power.

Thank you to Ms. Stanley for taking the idiot out of the idiot box. As always, go forward, enlightened reader, and work those words into conversation whenever possible. Especially Ozymandian.

By Michael Malone