We spent the weekend visiting my parents. Mom wanted us to stay with them. We thought the 2-year-old and the 3-month-old would do better in a hotel, where we just might be able to get them to sleep.

Sunday morning, my mother said that she had been up past midnight Friday and Saturday nights, so it probably was better that we hadn't stayed with them. I said, "That sounds almost like you're saying I was right and you were wrong."

She said, "I'm saying you were righter."

Using this formulation, the cat can be dead and deader.