On a roll!

In pursuit of that ultimately meaningless and valueless goal - extended daily posting - herewith is an actual essai.

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It is a given that the pedant's response to someone declaring a thing "so unique" or "really unique" or "very unique" is to point out, gracelessly but rightly, that "unique" cannot be modified. After all, the word indicates a singular, a one-of-a-kind, a thing having no like or equal, limited in occurrence to one. Clearly, logically, a thing can't be more or less unique, or unique to any given degree - it is either unique or it is not.

And yet, I have recently thought that there might be a meta-level of uniqueness, a state of ultra-uniqueness, if you will. Bear with me here.

Imagine a set of ten hand-made toy soldiers or figurines. Each one is unlike any other; every specimen is different from all the others. We would say that this is a set of ten unique statuettes.

Imagine another set of ten hand-made toy soldiers. In this case, our Gepetto has made four alike, and another three the same, and a pair of twins, and one of a kind. In this case, we have a set of ten soldiers, and only one is unique.

So, in some sense, isn't this last soldier in a state of ultra-uniqueness, for not only is he unique, he is also the only member of his tribe who is unique. In the first set, all of the soldiers are unique - giving them, despite their uniqueness, a shared characteristic. In that one quality, at least, they are not completely singular. Our last lonely soldier, however, amidst his multuplet cousins, is the only one who possesses the quality of uniqueness - he does not even share the description of his condition with his tribe. Doesn't that somehow sharpen his status?

When I first stumbled upon this line of thought, it made me think of the bumper sticker "You're unique - just like everyone else." Could it be that in this glibness there lies a subtle truth - that it might indeed be possible to be "more unique"?

I think it's definitely possible.

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For the what-I-had-for-lunch completists out there: NatDog drove me to work! I taught, prepped and went to a budget meeting! Otis made yummy tofu for dinner! The cats are cute!