serendipidous

[Laurence Horn]

On Feb 8, 2012, at 3:54 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> 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?
> 
Maybe when she went into New York as a child, her parents took her to Serendipity 3, the famous ice cream and frozen hot chocolate emporium on the East Side (still going, I see: http://www.serendipity3.com/main.htm), and she remembers how messy those big ice cream desserts were, getting all over your nice clothes and requiring a major cleanup.

LH

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