Calling Garrison Keillor II

The Great Taranto catches the NY Times in some silliness, "On average, American schoolchildren are performing at mediocre levels . . .."

But it's fun to see the problem. My dictionary (Random House 2nd) gives two definitions: 1) "of only ordinary or moderate quality; neither good nor bad"; 2) "rather poor or inferior".

I like that. It means, "not bad" and "bad."