So, the clue in the Wall Street Journal Friday crossword puzzle was 'home run pace'.
Four letters.
So, I pictured all the times I'd seen a baseball player set off from home base after the perfect hit.
After they get done making sure it is really a home run, they LOPE around the bases.
RIGHT?
They don't careen. They don't dash.
Nor do they stroll, walk or crawl.
It's an easy gait. Their ball is outta the park. It's a fabulous moment. Why be in a big hurry?
And they are playing it cool, too. No need to do cartwheels. It's obviously a good moment for them. A superlative moment.
Yes, he is going to lope around those windswept little bases. Like the very cool baseball player he is, who just happens to have hit a home run. We know he's happy. No need to belabor the point.
He lopes.
The answer the Wall Street Journal puzzle, in all their clueless, skyscraper bound existence there in Manhattan wanted was--
TROT.
Trot? Like a happy horse? Like an escaped puppy?
Like a bustling nursery school kid being called away from the sandbox for his snack of milk and cookies? We all know what that kid does. He trots briskly towards the milk and cookies. It's a bubbly moment. A chipper moment. It is not a laconically cool moment.
It's not a home run moment.
LOPE is the correct answer.