I've been amazed watching the news shows this morning. Caroline Kennedy is being raked over the coals for the number of times she has said "you know" in responding to reporters. The amazing part to me is not the number of times that Caroline Kennedy said "you know." I find it startling that the talking heads who are making the comments are oblivious to their own "uhs", "you knows" "wells" and other filler words and phrases that allow one's brain time to catch up with one's mouth. The ones that use cue cards and script do a bit better, but let them get off script and they become Carolinesque.
I suppose I'm a bit protective of Caroline Kennedy, since I had a crush on her in 1963, when her father was assassinated. Of course I was in Oneonta, Alabama, and she was in Washington, D.C. and Hyannis Port and who knows where else after that. But I remember wishing that she did not have to be so sad. So maybe the protective sentiment that arose from that unrequited love has risen from its dormancy.
Attorneys inevitably have the humbling experience of reading transcripts of their trials. What seemed like solid gold exposition, words that should be etched in marble on some wall somewhere, are somehow incomprehensible. No complete sentences. Subjects never stated. Antecedents lost somewhere three pages prior. And full of uhs, ohs, and you knows, if the court reporter is being truly accurate.
So cut my old sweetheart a little slack, you know?
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