The Bush-Powell tete-a-tete

SECRETARY OF State Colin Powell's statement that he had decided to resign after "good and fulsome discussions" with the president drew an instant burst of laughter from me, since the word fulsome means loathsomely and insincerely extreme, not full or thorough as intended by the unwitting secretary. Picturing the equally diction-challenged George W. Bush nodding in appreciative agreement with Powell's words creates a comic effect.

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But then again, is it possible that because of his well-known yet hitherto-papered-over policy differences with his war-mongering boss, Powell had simply succumbed to a Freudian slip of the tongue?

VIPAN CHANDRA
Professor of History
Wheaton College
Norton