Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci was primed for action Monday night.

The 17-term city councillor, who announced last week that his current term would be his last, displayed the quirkiness that has become his trademark over the past 40 years.

At times the mayor seemed to be the only councillor interested in the human side of the evening's events. In the middle of debate on the complex Harvard Motor Inn development proposal, Vellucci brought up the acute shortage of textbooks in city schools.

"Its a total disgrace that in this here intellectual city, this city of letters...that we don't have books for the kids," Vellucci said, introducing a measure that would channel money from the development into a fund for new textbooks.

But he was also quick to lash out as the debate grew fiercer, and, when accused of "sliming" a speaker with his criticism, responded, "I don't know what 'slime,' means--I didn't go to college."

Pasta Time

At a calmer moment, he took time out to explain the derivation of the term "linguini" to reporters--seems it comes from the Italian for "lizards' tongues."

With Vellucci's retirement from the council set for January 1990, the question is not whether he is tired, but what he will enliven next.