The Daily Feather — Pecksniffian Powell

“His book suffers from excessively long harangues against Pecksniffian prigs and temperance types who, he claims, are still trying to ruin our fun.”

Fefer D. Fefer, Seattle Weekly, January 22, 2003

According to the indefatigable Merriam-Webster, “Seth Pecksniff, a character with a holier-than-thou attitude in Charles Dickens's 1844 novel Martin Chuzzlewit, was no angel, though he certainly tried to pass himself off as one. Pecksniff liked to preach morality and brag about his own virtue, but in reality he was a deceptive rascal who would use any means to advance his own selfish interests. It didn't take long for Pecksniff's reputation for canting sanctimoniousness to leave its mark on English; ‘Pecksniffian’ has been used as a synonym of ‘hypocritical’ since 1849.” Synonyms for this disparaging term include, but should not be limited to: dishonest, deceitful, untruthful, contrived, unnatural, devious, assumed, mechanical, strained, insincere, simulated, bogus, false, affected, simplistic, forced, phony, claptrap, put-on, sham, backhanded, inappropriate, phony-baloney, feigned, double, two-faced, jive, artificial, counterfeit, fake, meaningless, lip, hollow, Janus-faced, mealy, mealymouthed, pretended, glib, double-faced, superficial, casual, facile, breezy, left-handed, and empty.

Until I stumbled across the beautiful alliteration of today’s title, I’d settled on (Dis)ingenuity. You’ll agree Pecksniffian outdoes itself in describing the disingenuous comportment of one Jerome Hayden Powell at his press conference following Wednesday’s conclusion of the final Federal Open Market Committee meeting of 2024. Let me count the ways!