Efficacious? Or…

The mayor of London was gobsmacked to learn that some soulless bureaucrat pulled the plug on a Hyde Park concert by Bruce Springsteen, who’d just been joined onstage by Paul McCartney.

It seems that the Boss and Sir Paul had violated a curfew by playing too late into the night. They were rocking some Beatles tunes when everything suddenly went silent. They didn’t even get to tell the audience goodnight.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said this:

“It sounds to me like an excessively efficacious decision.”

I opined that “efficacious” wasn’t the word the mayor was reaching for.

Oh, sure—pulling the plug was efficacious in stopping the concert. Efficacious means effective.

But I think Boris was trying to come up with “officious” in describing the decision.

Officious means meddlesome in a highhanded or overbearing way.

Surely the pointy-headed event staffer who abruptly terminated this once-in-a-lifetime musical moment was officious.

The mayor said that if someone had asked him, he’d have said to let Springsteen and McCartney keep playing.

“My answer would have been for them to jam in the name of the Lord.”

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