Blogging with alacrity

Drudge briefly ran a piece on recent cyber attacks on treasury dept. and secret service web sites. The article quoted DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano as saying something like "agents are meeting the challenges of cyberwarfare defense with alacrity." Alacrity. ALACRITY! alacrity. In the context of the article it means, "looking to kick butt!" It's a nice word I like it. It feels good on the tongue. I think I'll find a way to use it in conversation at the coffee shop today. Watch it bouce from forehead to forehead causing wrinkles and expressions that say, "What the hell kind of a high brow word is that?"

I just went back to the Drudge Report to re read the article and get a better fix on this new (for me) word and it's gone!. The Napolitano quote I mean. They took away my word! It's like it was never there. Why would they do that? Was it a misquote? Did Janet call up and say, "I didn't say that. Hell I don't even know what alacrity means" (erronously pronouncing it with a soft cee). Or maybe she meant to say they were on hold with the Microsoft help desk to deal with the problem. Did Drudge decide it is too much of a liberal sounding word for its pages? Did cyber attackers hack the site and ice my word? Web content is constantly changing unlike a print issue of the New York Times where you can circle a word and slap it down on the table prove to those skeptical coffee swillers it's legit word. They'll think I stay up nights searching through the dictionary for arcane words to drop on them. They're tough crowd.

Ah ha! Plugged alacrity into news.google.com and came up with 195 hits. Topmost is the BBC article that Drudge first cited and later switched to Yahoo News. So it's a Brit word. Use it and I'll sound like a Limey. I'd better rethink this whole thing. Wait there it is again. The BBC used the exact same quote in a June 30, 2009 piece on a related but different subject. So they liked the word too. Couldn't wait to throw it out there again. I wonder if it will catch on and gain common usage? I remember back to the 2004 (I think) election campaign when the tv talking heads learned the word 'gravitas'. Mostly in referring to John Kerry they beat that poor little word to death. It tore through the media like a wild fire through dry brush. I haven't heard it since. Don't miss it either.

I hope they don't do that to alacrity. It's too cool a word.