Is the ability to differentiate—to tell things apart, to distinguish between things, to determine which thing is better, which thing is more important—the essence of intelligence and also of thought? the researcher asked himself. His cousin, a stand-up comedian, word inventor, and
word artist quipped, "might dif-FOR-en-ti-ate' mean the ability to differentiate what a thing is used 'for.' And could "differentiate"
surreally mean, something along the lines of she ate differently, different she ate?