Exigency

"Had it emerged earlier in the term, I might have assumed that this liaison was a mistake: another one of those short-lived pacts dictated by exigency rather than true fellow feeling. But given how long Sheba had maintained a stately separateness from the rest of the staff, the friendship had to be acknowledged as a considered and deliberate choice on her part."
[What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller, p34, First Picador Edition, June 2004]

NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. ex·i·gen·cies
1. The state or quality of requiring much effort or immediate action. 2. A pressing or urgent situation. See synonyms at crisis. 3. Urgent requirements; pressing needs. Often used in the plural.
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Boondoggle

"Bush officials said Wilson’s trip was a boondoggle, and was set up by his wife, [Valerie] Plame Wilson, who worked at the CIA on weapons of mass destruction."
[Second Cheney aide cooperating in leak probe, those close to case say by Jason Leopold and Larisa Alexandrovna*]

NOUN: 1. Informal An unnecessary or wasteful project or activity. 2a. A braided leather cord worn as a decoration especially by Boy Scouts. b. A cord of braided leather, fabric, or plastic strips made by a child as a project to keep busy. [Note from Renice: Napoleon Dynamite's friend Deb is a boondoggle entrepreneur.]
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: boon·dog·gled, boon·dog·gling, boon·dog·gles; To waste time or money on a boondoggle.
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Robert H. Link (died 1957), American scoutmaster.
OTHER FORMS: boondoggler —NOUN
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