Michelle Goepp writes: --- magical truthsaying bastard roney! <rone at ennui.org> wrote: > Let's face it: we're lazy speakers. Of course we are. If one tried to refine, simplify, and most clearly express every thought verbally, our conversations would last hours rather than the 15 minutes our boss allows us. Or, in the case of some of my acquaintences, weeks. We would then speak as we thoughtfully write (as opposed to quickly write, such as IM-speak). Being lazy, therefore, saves time at the expense of clarity, using common phrases and assumptions to communicate in an almost shorthand form of the language. If one speaks lazily at the expense of clarity, one will more often than not need to be more specific. So the time you saved will disappear. "Penny wise and pound foolish," i think it's called. rone -- {Reagan's} presidency always reminded me of a remark made by a woman to Heywood Broun following Secretariat's victory in the Triple Crown. After the trauma of Vietnam and Watergate, she said, Secretariat had "restored her faith in humanity." I like to think Reagan was the Secretariat of the eighties. - Garry Trudeau