A. People have been very goosey about the economy, with predictions of a recession about every month.

Then spoiled it by adding, "But I don't see why you were so goosey.

"He's a goosey old bird," she said.

"People around here have gotten very goosey since Pan Am 103," said one State Department official familiar with the process.

Surely there was little in Eleanor Roosevelt's life before 1920 that outwardly distinguished her from the smug and somewhat goosey crowd of wealthy socialites into which she was born.

"The market was very goosey, very itchy, very nervous," said Robert H. Stovall, president of Stovall/Twenty-First Advisors.

"Iraqis are so goosey," General Haig drawled on Fox News, which, like other news channels, scrambled to interpret an image of the Baghdad skyline, "it might just be a flock of bats."

Referring to Mr. Sununu's comment, Senator Simpson snapped, "It's not helpful to create suspicion when you're going to sit down and ask pretty goosey Republicans and Democrats to start getting closer to what they know in their heart and guts they want to do."