On Sunday, I am wearing my 3 piece Navy Jos A Bank Traveler suit to church. I am deciding whether to wear my Tecova loafers or cowboy boots. What does everyone think?

"Unique" and "data" are used wrong all the time! I firmly believe that using our words carefully and accurately is a central aspect of being a well-intentioned gentleman. Vocabulary ensures that what we say is accurately understood by our audience (online and in person). Vocabulary is also the single strongest predictor of overall intelligence on standardized intelligence tests (this was my field of research for about a decade). In order to avoid this coming across as elitist, I want to stress that the two guidances below - certainly pet peeves of mine - are words we use every day rather than something only used in rarified academia or by some PhD on a sartorial forum... 🤓 Unique: its simple definition is "one of a kind". This is dichotomous, like a light is on or off. No in between. Therefore, nothing can be "really unique", or "largely unique" or nearly any other modifier applied to it. When something is not one of a kind, we still like "unique" because it sounds stronger than what we should probably say: very rare. It is, however, wrong and inaccurately conveys our intent. The only appropriate modifier for unique is something which clarifies the noun is becoming unique. If only three of something remain in the world and one is destroyed, saying the final two are "nearly unique" is appropriate. Data: this word is ALWAYS a plural. Datum is the word to describe a single piece of data. This is just like saying "this people is funny" when we mean "this person is funny". As a statistician, you can only begin to imagine how much this drives me nuts because of its near omnipresent use. "These data are impressive" may sound weird at first, but it is the only grammatically appropriate way to say it. I hope this was helpful and not pedantic!

It’s already a bit late, but it was a busy, heavy day. Today, my father wanted to take the entire family out to eat at a restaurant. The food was great, by the way. It was around 3 PM and already very hot, so I wanted something that would feel good to wear. Even with the AC on, it’s not going to feel as great in a busy restaurant, after all. I went with my new linen outfit, the one I shared before that I recently received as a gift. It was a great choice, just as I expected. It was a busy restaurant, but the outfit kept me comfortable throughout, and that made the whole day feel much better. Even though I wasn’t as happy as I could have been with the state I’m in right now, I still tried my best to enjoy the day and appreciate the time with my family.

As an RN, I see my colleagues make these types of errors with physicians regularly. The incorrect use of medical terminology can quickly cause a provider to dismiss your opinion. After using that level of our education to communicate with the good doctor, it’s both a regulatory requirement and best practice to ensure compliance to communicate instructions to our patients at about an 8th grade level. As some people are prone to say: “the struggle is real.”