- By Jim Evans
- Entertainment
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SMART TALK by Dr. Winton "Windy" Prolix
DIFFERENT KINDS: We doctors who treat temporal retentives - they're the ones who plan ahead - sometimes say that all use of redundancy is retentive behavior.
Of course, by asserting this, we may be encroaching on the expertise of the staff psychologist here at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, Viva Palaver. But don't try to tell us this on a Friday evening, especially after we've shared a flagon or two.
Then we grow more confident: Why else would one say "different" in four different kinds? Or five different colors? Are six separate occasions different from six occasions? And if I tried to call you seven times, isn't that as clear as, and more efficient than, seven different times?
By now, we've grown loud from topping each other and wouldn't hear poor Viva even if she were to support our theory about the gratuitous use of different before virtually every number.
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