How To Come Off Like A Total Douche In Just Five Words

One way to make people feel stupid is by forcing them to look up five-dollar words you use in a lede*:

Look for Mayor Bloomberg’s limerence with running for president to fade away as Super Tuesday’s votes are counted tomorrow night if they show Senator McCain as the presumptive Republican nominee.

I’ll save you the trouble:

You are not just in love, you are limerent. This is a brand-new word made up by a University of Bridgeport psychologist, Dorothy Tennov, in her new book on romance, Love and Limerence. If you haven’t guessed it already, limerence is the ultimate, near obsessional form of romantic love. (Time Magazine, January 21, 1980)

But that’s not really the worst thing, which would be that apparently Bloomberg doesn’t have to actually decide not to run for several months, prolonging the citywide nightmare:

For those who believe they will wake up the day after Super Tuesday to hear Mayor Bloomberg making an announcement about his presidential plans — not so fast.

The billionaire independent may not make a decision for months and may even launch early-state petition drives to get his name on the ballot before fully committing to running, an associate says.

Doug Schoen, who was Bloomberg’s pollster in his mayoral campaigns, said Bloomberg operatives have spent the last several months preparing a nationwide ballot-access movement.

. . .

“This can play out over the next two to three months before he has to make a decision,” Schoen said.

*And if you’re going to use them, please at least use them correctly — Bloomberg may have a supersized billion-dollar ego, but I don’t get the sense that he’s obsessively infatuated — like a teenager — with the idea of being president . . .