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Caller on the most recent show wanted to know if making something "worse" implied that it was "bad" to begin with. She and her boyfriend differed on the matter.
As an odd sort of data point (this time using the superlative), I refer you to Ringo Starr's album "Ringo 2012" and in particular to the chorus of the song "Wonderful":
The worst it ever was was wonderful
Better than I ever dreamed
The worst it ever was was wonderful
Cause it's always been you and me
And we made it through
The way we always do
Cause for me and you
The worst it ever was was wonderful
(Besides the use of "worst" in connection with something that was never "bad" in the first place, this illustrates one of the cases in which a duplicated word is not an error, however much your grammar checker might complain about it.)
Ringo may not be the best one to go to for grammar advice, though. He's got a long history of quirky utterances, going all the way back to coining the tag line "It's been a hard day's night". He's credited as co-writer of this song along with Gary Nicholson, so the phrasing may be his own.
Are there better ways to say what Ringo was saying? People but say similarly: With such dream team, the worst that can happen is not to beat the record; On that rough trail, the best to hope for is 10 miles a day.
In the situation of Michelle calling in though, I'll say there's no room for equivocation. He meant it was bad, no but or if about it. One possible mitigation may be to say that her hair was good right to the last minute, when the wind blew or something, and then any attempt to fix would but make it badder.
Our intrepid political leaders are wont to explain their public statements to make them sound worse, which in similar sentences always means bad to start with.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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