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Monday, May 31, 2010

Precision Speech and the Arkansas River

I like rivers and streams. When driving I am a road hazard around bridges because I want to see the flowing water. Once in the eighties I was driving through Arkansas on the way from Texas to Kentucky. The Arkansas river runs through Little Rock where I stopped for gas. I had been daydreaming and was not sure of exactly where I was. In particular I was not sure if I had crossed the Arkansas river or whether it was still further down the road. Without choosing my words carefully I told the attendant which way I was going and asked: “Is the Arkansas River still up ahead?” He looked at me and without a hint of a smile said: “Well, it was when I came to work this morning.”
Posted by Unknown at 12:39 AM
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3 comments:

  1. RobJune 9, 2010 at 11:31 AM

    You might have missed an opportunity here... maybe he thought you were askin' about moonshine?

    ReplyDelete
  2. TomJune 11, 2010 at 5:03 PM

    On an Army bivouac my sergeant told me to take a 2&1/2 ton truck down "that" path & hide it. Two days later when I pulled the truck up to the back of the convoy the sergeant hoped on the running board and angrily asked "where have you been! I looked everywhere for you" Obviously not a precise statement. I should have let it go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. TomAugust 17, 2010 at 9:23 AM

    As a proponent of precision speech I admire this woman. On the other hand I believe that one should, as they say, “pick you battles”

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/venti_size_fury_A0uKw71Ky1UAOksmbjrBhI

    ReplyDelete

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