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ImageSMART TALK
by Dr. Winton "Windy" Prolix

POURING OVER REPORTS:  "Haven't you left out a word?  Pouring what over reports?  Syrup?  Why would you do that?"

My colleague, Dr. Ced Riley, is having fun at the expense of a patient, and I can hear his big voice in the treatment lab next to mine.  The patient thought he was at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired to be treated only for temporal retentive disorder, because his writing was rife with expressions like advance reservations, present time, and past history.  But Dr. Riley also spotted pouring over reports and couldn't resist jumping on it.

The patient may simply be a poor observer of his own reading.  He may have never noticed that pore over or pore through means to be engrossed in or to study minutely.

When he's discharged, he may still slip and say three A.M. in the morning, but he'll always pore.  Unless he's having pancakes.

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