2008.09.25
I think redundancies get a lot of flack that they don't deserve...
People who pick on "ATM machine" or "SAT test" or even "Chai Tea" or "Sombrero Hat" (ok, those are bad examples, because the foreign word actually acts as a modifier specifying a type of tea preparation, or hat) don't understand how useful redundancy can be all over language, in terms of "gratuitous" parts of speech or syllables...
Redundancies make spoken and written language more robust, able to be understood even when the transmission lines aren't clear, whether that's a literal electronic signal fading, background noise at a party, someone just reading too fast, or, in this case, a possible cultural or contextual gap that needs to be bridged.
Video of the Moment
Wow, this Wii Wario game is really shaking things up!
Exchange of the Moment
"I want to ask you a hypothetical question."
"My favorite kind. Next to rhetorical ones. I can nap equally well through either kind."
Reading "The Postman Always Rings Twice"- "Banned in Boston", I'm such an outlaw! At least in 1934 terms.
"don't sit cryin' over good times you've had / there's a girl right next to you / and she' just waitin' fr something to do"
I think the amount of music I've acquired, and how I don't recall where I got most of it, points to how long and rich and varied life is.
Boston Public Garden is such the wrong place to cut across quickly... darn you winding and verdant scenic paths! Make way for ducklings, ya