Barbara Walters. That's what I thought of too when I first heard "twenty, twenty" from the lips of one of the mischievous teenage boys that I work with. He walked right up to me and said, slightly sheepishly, "I need a twenty, twenty."
"Uh, okay. What does that mean?"
So then he explained, and thus began to open up the window shedding light upon the workings of teenage boys' minds. "It means you need to stand twenty feet away from everyone for twenty seconds."
"Mmmmmm......because?"
"Well, because, you know.......you don't want to make it smell bad with everyone else around."
Oh, okay. Since as a recreation therapist one of the primary goals I have with the kids that I work with is to make sure that they are well-rounded and appropriate in the many and various social situations they find themselves in, I had to give props to the kids. I mean, he--or whoever it was--came up with this one, and he was actually using it! One, he was saving himself and others embarrassment. Two, he was being considerate of others. And three, he wasn't drawing attention to himself (as long as he was far enough away, and wasn't asking out loud in front of everybody for the space and time).
Thus, "twenty, twenty" has another definition in my head, and it's now the one I think of first when hearing the double-word phrase. Who knew that teenage boys could broaden your vocabulary, AND your world by making this a simple part of your weekly routine? Gotta love it.
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