Although I agree with the editorial praising the new James Webb Space Telescope (Our View, Sept. 13), I would like to quibble with one of the points the editorial board makes. (Call me a nit-picker.)

The board writes that if the telescope had not worked as planned, it would have been “a historic boondoggle.” The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang defines a “boondoggle” as “an extravagant and useless project.”

If the James Webb Space Telescope had failed, it surely would have been an unfortunate failure, not a “boondoggle.”

Harold McWilliams
Rockport