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SMART TALK: A Moment In Time |
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Jim Evans
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Friday, 09 May 2008 |
 SMART TALK
by Dr. Manda Rynne
A MOMENT IN TIME: This
phrase gets trotted out regularly on TV, usually with gravitas heavier than a
dumpster full of Emmies. It has also
done service as a book title, school essay assignment, you name it. Here at the Institute for the Linguistically
Impaired, we stopped counting and documenting this crime against logic and
language years ago.
In treatment sessions, we always ask our patients, "What
else is a moment in? Do moments exist in space?" Saying a moment does the job
completely, thank you.
At the Edwin Newman Clinic, we often diagnose these
patients as temporal retentives. Those
with full-blown Temporal Retention Syndrome (TRS) also like to say earlier in time and introduced for the first time.
An insidious Englishism that's often a part of TRS renders
patients unable to say or write that an event will occur in two weeks. For them, only in two weeks' time will do.
Please
support the Edwin Newman Clinic. We
have so much work to do.
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