{"id":451,"date":"2012-03-11T11:19:18","date_gmt":"2012-03-10T22:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=451"},"modified":"2012-03-11T20:02:45","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T07:02:45","slug":"the-bestest-best-there-is-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=451","title":{"rendered":"The bestest best there is"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Tucked away in a corner of the rather crowded nook that passes for my memory is a fragment of a conversation that I overheard several years ago.<\/p>\n

Two young soccer fans were discussing players.\u00a0 One of the lads remarked that a particular player was \u2018dead good\u2019, which was praise of the highest order.<\/p>\n

\u2018Yeah, but\u2019 \u2013 and his friend named another player \u2013 \u2018is way better.\u2019<\/p>\n

Not to be outdone, the first lad nominated a third player as \u2018the best\u2019. And, for a moment or two, the matter seemed to be settled.<\/p>\n

But then the second lad introduced yet another name, suggesting that this particular player was \u2018better than best\u2019.<\/p>\n

I could almost hear the Gotcha!<\/p>\n

\u2018You can\u2019t have better than best,\u2019 his friend said, triumphantly.\u00a0 \u2018Best is the bestest best there is.\u2019<\/p>\n

I am often reminded of this conversation when I read some of the claims made by organisations that want to sell me stuff.<\/p>\n

In the past few weeks I\u2019ve been offered:<\/p>\n

Several \u2018free gifts\u2019<\/em>.\u00a0 (Well, if it\u2019s a gift, it can\u2019t be anything but free.)<\/p>\n

At least one \u2018incredibly unique\u2019<\/em> product.\u00a0 (Sorry, chaps, it\u2019s either unique or it\u2019s not.\u00a0 There are no degrees of uniqueness.)<\/p>\n

Several items that are \u2018exclusive\u2019 <\/em>to me.\u00a0 (I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 You\u2019ve also offered them \u2013 exclusively \u2013 to at least six of my neighbours.)<\/p>\n

Perhaps I could just remind the authors of these commercial missives that best is still the bestest best there is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tucked away in a corner of the rather crowded nook that passes for my memory is a fragment of a conversation that I overheard several years ago. Two young soccer fans were discussing players.\u00a0 One of the lads remarked that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}