- By Jim Evans
- Entertainment
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SMART TALK
by Dr. Shirley Glibb
UNMANNED DRONE: Time was, the forces of political correctness were so humorless that they would have insisted upon unpersoned drone, a solution for a minor problem that ignores the major one, the redundancy.
Don't we know by now that a drone is not just a monotonous sound or a male honeybee, but also a pilotless aircraft? Isn't saying unmanned drone as dumb as two-hulled catamaran? At the Center for English as a First Language, we like to ask patients, especially if they're journalists, "Ever heard of a manned drone?" Then they hear how silly they sound and drop the useless modifier.
This can lead to other improvements, such as no longer saying genetic mutation.