verbal culs-de-sac
A professor somewhere was giving a lecture today. In this lecture, he provided an example to illustrate a point, shortly followed by another, analogous, example. He provided two examples, and since he had given an accompanying conclusion to the first example, which is to be expected, he now faced a diverging path before him. He could either choose to exit quick by stating some variant of "same same" at the end, allowing the students to fill in the blanks, or he could repeat himself and restate the now slightly modified, second, conclusion.
It's as if you could imagine the professor driving down a road -- the class with him in a big van -- and he arrived at a junction with two choices. He could continue along the main road1, or he could turn into a cul-de-sac, a dead end. This was a short cul-de-sac, he and most everyone else in the car could see the entirety of its contents from the main street, but he went in anyway. The ensuing brief period of time could therefore be described as this narrative vehicle moving down a narrow road, unable to turn around, and with no choice but to drive to the very end, do the loop, and drive back out.
I said no choice but really there are always choices, and this is where the metaphor extends itself rather nicely. Similarly to how a "bold"2 driver might decide, all be damned, to do a U-turn in the middle of the road, perhaps going onto someone's driveway, a bold professor might begin going down this cul-de-sac, change his mind halfway through and give the class one of those "... well... you know the rest", often interspersed with entertaining pauses. Both are, all things considered, mild forms of spontaneity, but spontaneity nonetheless.
I don't have an agenda with this observation, and my opinion on the road feature has yet to touch ground, but I'm fairly certain that its destination lies within the magical words of "it depends". In much the same way that the particulars of who is driving and how they drive can hold the key towards making that unnecessary detour a pleasant excursion. There are plenty of good things to be said about that redundant trip down the tiny inlet, a brief respite for the mind, an opportunity for those that weren't paying attention last time to hop back on the ride, or even the simple occasional beauty of oral repetition. Regardless, I enjoyed my first conscious trip down the cul-de-sac.