Le mot juste

I'm driving to work and listening to NPR.  Because swearing takes a lot of my attention while I drive these days, I miss the full context of the current news story. Something, I believe, about a large group of immigrants making their way over the border from Mexico, only to immediately turn themselves in to American authorities.

The newscaster in the studio is talking to a reporter on the scene. 

"Allison, I've been calling this 'a situation'; help me be more precise.  Should I be calling it 'a crisis'? Something else?"

"Well, Bill, I think it could be called 'an ongoing situation' and yesterday, it was really 'an event'."

We are now officially living in Will Eno'sTragedy: a tragedy.