On being all wet after a flood

Give a listen first of all to this exercise [ram audio file] in how many times you can say "y'know" in the answer to the first question during an interview.*

Then take a look at four sentences that put the whole thing in perspective.

Ya know?

-srbp-

* The answer is:

11 in about 42 seconds, with seven of them (64%) occurring within the first 12 seconds. There's a bonus "quite frankly" in there as well as a "right".

For the record, here's the transcript of the opening section:

Well, y’know, I, y’know, any time, y’know, a leader and the leader of the country, y’know, comes in to have a look at things first hand, I, y’know, I’m pleased he’s done that, but, y’know, he’s done it two days after the fact, he never even gave us the courtesy, y’know, and not only me personally, but this is about the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, the courtesy of a phone call over the last 72 hours while all this was happening, to say don’t worry, we’ll be there, and we’ll work with the provincial and the municipal governments to get this done, so, y’know, he comes in on his own, and does it on his own, because, y’know, I and my ministers certainly would have met him at the site, and pointed out to him what we saw when the rivers were raging, quite frankly, right, everything’s pretty well settled down now, and some of the road damage has already been repaired in order to allow, y’know, the transportation links to be back, but anyway, y’know, he does things in his own way, and so be it.