serendipidous

[Victor Steinbok]

I see this as an odd use of serendipidous--others might disagree. But
let me get to the point.

A NJ Appeals Court has removed a "freeholder" from the county board
because of a previous judicial screwup that placed her above another
Republican candidate who had beaten her in the primary (albeit by a
small margin). The county is heavily Republican, so the presumption has
been all along that the winner of the primary would win the election
(she did). So now that she's been removed, there will have to be a
nominating convention to place someone in her office, then another
primary and another general election in November, in order to fill the
remainder of her term. Her response:

http://goo.gl/6K3GY
> "One thing I've learned is that politics is a very serendipitous
> business," Nordstrom said. "My understanding right now is that I'm not
> a freeholder. You have to take it in stride. I'm taking it one step at
> a time."

Why "serendipitous"? How is this a happy coincidence? Did she simply
mean "unexpected"? Then why use the big words?

     VS-)

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