Some very unique redundancies

Some very unique redundancies

Long ago, a teacher circled the expression “very unique” in an essay I wrote in some lower grade or other. “REDUNDANT,” her marginal note said. If I had had the presence of mind to look up “unique” in the dictionary, I might have responded that it is sometimes defined as “unusual” and I might have pointed to its use by J. D. Salinger (“we were fairly unique, the sixty of us, …”).

I was too shocked by the red marks on my essay to do any of that. And I avoid...