GRE words in action!

From a Sunday NY Times opinion piece on CA governor Brown (thanks to my dad):

Some of Brown's ideas that seemed wacky in the '70s have now gone mainstream. When I ask if he's less flaky, he replies, "That was a canard." Then he goes off on a semantic tangent. "Canard. That's a good word. It's hard to use, though, without being awkward. I've not found too many sentences I can put it in." Then he resumes defending himself: "I'm open and innovative and experimental, and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't work."