When 'goofball' just isn't good enough

The Maureen Dowd word of the day is flibbertigibbet flibbertigibbet: A silly, scatterbrained, or garrulous person. Dowd usage: "Wall Street seems less like a symbol of America’s macho capitalism and more like that famous Jane Austen character Mrs. Bennet, a flibbertigibbet always anxious about getting richer and her poor nerves." Common usage: "With her sustainable coherence of thought veering ever closer into Andy Rooney territory, many of Maureen's colleagues often dismissed her as being little more than a flibbertigibbet."