Sorry, what did Betty buy again?

For some reason, someone decided that the best way for a person to perfect English pronunciation was to hone their skill in tongue twisters. 

After all, what other way to royally mark your rite of passage to the world of fluent native speakers than:

1. Being able to give a perfect account of a lady selling seashells on the seashore.
2. Being scared of the neighborhood Betty, who loves to buy better butter.

Seashell lady and I haven’t had much trouble. She has always been very kind to my tongue and tiny brain. She is also not intimidating. She is some mysterious creature somewhere, and I have very high hopes, if not absolute certainty, of never running into her.

Betty isn’t the same, though. There is something supremely familiar about her personality. She means business. She is here to solve problems. She is also there to haunt your second language lessons for all eternity i.e., if you let her.

Don’t know Betty? Oh how I envy you! Once the dust settles, Let me explain. With a convenient rhyme, hoping you have come across at least some version of it.

Betty bought a bit of butter
But she found the butter bitter
So she bought some better butter
To make the bitter butter better.

Betty is the epitome of creativity, an innate problem solver. 

As you can see, Betty accidentally bought bitter butter. She could have stopped right there. But she is a curious soul, a butter connoisseur, so naturally, she tastes it.

She finds it bitter. 

She does have the option to discard it, But where’s the fun in that? She devises a very well-thought-out plan to solve the problem- throw good butter after bad – to make the bad mildly better than bitter. 

You can see that she is human because she gives in to the same fallacy as the rest of rational humans. She surely doesn’t abide by the golden rules of gambling – never throw good money after bad. Or maybe the rules of money don’t apply to butter.

Betty and butter get along very well.

Butter and I get along very well.

So per syllogism, do Betty and I get along well?

You know the answer.