Too Little, Too Late

Why is it a witty repartee or even a correct answer often comes up too late? It is awfully frustrating. Today I was asked what the word “foist” meant and though I looked it up yesterday in connection with my son’s spelling homework, my mind went blank. It just plainly refused to offer me an answer. It juggled the rhyming words around – “foist, moist, hoist, joist, voiced, rejoiced” - ignoring my request for information. As if by magic, all other people present couldn’t come up with the meaning of the word also and the dictionary was nowhere to be found. So, with “foist”, “moist”, “hoist”, “joist”, and “voiced” I left the school. An hour later while I was sitting at the dentist - stark light in my eyes, the drill pulsating in my tooth, fists clutched in anticipation of pain - the answer, loud and clear, came to me, “foist – a) to force another to accept something ; b) to pass something off as genuine.” “Oh, goodie,” rejoiced my conciseness, “now, how will you say it in your native Russian?” “No can do”, was the answer, and my mind went blank.