"Jejune"

       Someone made the movie "Sleepless in Seattle" into a stage musical, and its world premiere in Pasadena last week was met with L.A. Times theater critic Charles McNulty's characterization of the vehicle's song lyrics as "jejune."

       Had I seen the word before?  Yes.  Did I remember what it meant?  No.  Of course it's an attractive word because of the little stutter syllable at the outset, making one wonder.   And no, it has nothing to do with the Roman Goddess Juno, quite the opposite of beauty in its meanings drawn from a part of the intestine--the jejunum--usually found empty upon dissection after death.

       Yes, the lyrics are empty, dry, devoid of life and sustenance, and with associations of intellectually vapid and arid and (maybe because of associations with "juvenile") sophomoric.

       Reading the "Sleepless" review on June 4th, my own association with the word?

                                      "JeJune is bustin' out all over,"

from a far better musical of my youth by Rodgers and Hammerstein, "Carousel."