- By Jim Evans
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Smart TalkSMART TALK By Dr. Parley Speake
IRREGARDLESS: Adding ir- (not) to regardless cancels the "-less" and leaves you saying "regarding." Not what you want. It's one of those double negatives like I don't have none, which means you have at least one. And whatever you have, I probably don't want it, regardless of your price.
A related and extreme impairment in some parts of the country is so don't I. Here at the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, we teach patients to say so do I.
Just as strange is I could care less. Our patients seem surprised to learn that they're saying that they do care, at least a little, if they could care less. What they mean, and should say, is I couldn't care less.
When they say that, we know they don't give a darn, regardless of what we say.
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