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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Letter To The Editor

Re:  The Unmuddled Mathematician
I just finished reading your column in the online paper.  You brought up a great point.  When I was back in college at Lake Superior State University, I had a speech class.  I don’t remember the professor’s name, but I remember his face (gravelly), build (heavy), hair (greasy) and his voice (deep and clear).  We all were required to give a first speech within one week of class on anything we chose to speak about.  I found it very interesting that after everyone in the class gave their first speech he told us that we would fail the class if we used the word “like” in any other speech in his class.  He told us how many “you knows and likes” we had in that speech.  He had an uncanny ability to count the “you knows” while the students spoke.  He also GRADED us on how many “you knows” that we counted in each speech that was given by our fellow classmates (and compared our counts to his). He said exactly what you said: “Avoid using “like” and “you know” when all you are doing is filling an empty space in speech with a meaningless noise without purpose.”. 

Although I am not as old (read: experienced) as you, to this very day I still pay particular attention to public speakers, especially if they use “like” in their speeches.  I also try to count the “you knows” but I know that I will miss some of them.  When both of daughters had speech in Rich High, I made certain to pound these two very simply rules into them, just as it was pounded into my head back in 1984.  That was 30 years ago, if you are counting (which I know you are).   I don’t remember much else about that class, but maybe that was the whole point….just to make sure we paid attention to “likes and you knows”.

Scott Tollentino, Garden City

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