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Or as the Stranger in the Coens’ “The Big Lebowski” puts it, “That’s the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuatin’ itself, down through the generations, westward the wagons, across the sands of time until — aw, look at me, I’m ramblin’ again.”

But durned if he didn’t unholster that squinty-eyed, chest-forward ’tude that the folks still love.

That durned tassel thing tickle my nose, but I didn’t scratch it or nothing.

When I once complained about this to the branch manager, I was treated like a dotty old man in a shopping mall who’s ranting about how the escalators go too durned fast.

You feel as though you really should be carrying around one of those giant ear trumpets and shaking your fist at durned youngsters who sass their elders, consarn it.