Sometimes it seems that the New York Times has a person on staff whose sole job is to come up with obscure words to use in headlines. Today the Times outdid itself in the headline for its obituary of the comedian George Carlin, which read:

“George Carlin, Splenetic Comedian, Dies at 71"

Some of the Times staffers (or their parents) probably spent more than $100,000 on their Ivy League educations, so maybe they feel compelled to make use of their educations by using as many ten-dollar words as possible.

In any case, the use of "splenetic" sent countless readers scrambling for their dictionaries or, alternatively, the Swiss Army knife of reference sources, Google. On Google's top 100 "Hot Trends" of search terms Monday morning, "splenetic" was as high as number 4 at one point.

But apparently someone at the Great Gray Lady decided that "splenetic" was a tad too obscure, even for the Times: the paper's Web site later on Monday replaced the S-word with "irreverent."

By the way, the MerriamWebster dictionary ( www.m-w.com ) defines splenetic as:
1: (archaic) : given to melancholy
2: marked by bad temper, malevolence, or spite

I think "irreverent" is the better choice.