jackanapes

The Elon Musk of today seems to be angling for the trophy of World’s Biggest Jackanapes.

When he bragged that he could raise the dead, some pueblo jackanapes stuffed him in a box, lowered it into the ground and began shoveling earth upon it until Bishop Doctor Professor Money hollered, “For the love of God, let me out!”

Alas, just as I was winding up this column, I received a package from Jackanapes Press containing Adam Bolivar’s “The Ettinfell of Beacon Hill: Gothic Tales of Boston,” which is said to be terrific.

Indeed, “those jackanapes Mets,” as the New Yorker’s Roger Angell called them, have long been celebrated for treating baseball as a kind of never-ending fraternity hazing.

Other words Mr Bercow has used that other MPs have said extremely rarely, or never, include: "Demosthenian, "Einsteinian, "Flaubert", "Heidegger", "irascibility", "jackanapes", "rhapsodise", "susurrations" and "testicle".