BTW It's "Recuse"

Given my penchant for confusing "its'" (possessive of the third person neutral pronoun) and "it's" (the contraction of it is), it's a bit of the pot calling the kettle black when I point out someone else's malaprop.

Still, a single malaprop was batted back and forth between parties Monday night at the Common Council meeting to the point where collegial wincing was evident, and I could barely keep a straight face myself.

It started during the debate about the methodology for choosing candidates for police chief.

A Republican council member indicated that the assessment company (Bruce Davey Associates) decided to "recluse" themselves from bidding on the city's proposal. In a matter of minutes, we were reminded several more times that Davey had "reclused" himself.

Then a Democratic council member, who was arguing that Davey's company should still be considered, complained that Democratic council members had not received an email in which the company owner decided to "recluse" himself.

For the record, "recuse" is the appropriate term. It's a formal, almost legalistic term meaning "to disqualify oneself from being a judge." It's used often when an individual judge, or the member of a board feels their judgment will be impaired for one reason or another, often because they have a relationship with the person being judged, or have a preconceived opinion about the topic being discussed in judgment.

"Recluse," on the other hand, is what Greta Garbo claimed to be when she said "I want to be left alone." A recluse is a person who withdraws from society. I don't think that's what Davey said, or intended.

I recommend that Council members agree among themselves that when a fellow member misspeaks, a polite correction be made so that a single language abusage doesn't grow from a lovable cub into a Yogi Berra-ism. And it will save a lot of eye-rolling, squirming and chuckle-stifling.