There are those in our lives whom we consider genuinely good people. They're positive, helpful, accommodating. They've been there for us when we've needed them. We deem them a definite enhancement to our lives. It's for this reason we may be astonished to find that they're single, and chances are they've been a bachelor or bachelorette for quite a while. "But they'd make the perfect catch," we tell ourselves or others with bewilderment. We later discover it isn't that they can't land a date, for their good looks and charisma have been known to draw a healthy number of prospects. It's that they're super picky. We might try to fix them up with someone we know, but they always seem to find fault with something, and it is usually in the domain of attractiveness. For example, some women refuse to date men who are not taller than them. Then there are men who will not give the time of day to a woman who goes beyond a certain ...

The word of the day is one of my favorites, as I often use it to describe my hard-to-please boss: persnickety. The dictionary defines it as "overparticular about trivial details; fastidious. In other words, someone who's persnickety is fussy, choosy, particular, picky, finicky...you get the point. One thing is to be particular, but people like my supervisor seem to deliberately look for any excuse not to proceed with something -- signing off on a project, choosing a dress for a party, etc. It's these kind of people that take forever to make a decision. Just when they seem to have made up their mind, they find something new to criticize. If not given a deadline, they can spend weeks -- if not months -- nitpicking at the most minute things. While to one observer this may reflect a discerning eye, to another it may signal a chronic inability to make a decision. Had you ever used or heard the word before? Have you ever met someone persnickety?