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When is a shortcut not a shortcut?

The dictionary.com definition of shortcut is 1. A shorter or quicker way. 2. A method, procedure, policy, etc. that reduces the time or energy needed to accomplish something. One word in that definition applies to any number of so-called shortcuts that we have undertaken on our journey thus far. The word "shorter". You might argue is a pretty significant part of the word shortcut, but I think if nothing else applies then perhaps it isn't a shortcut after all. I mean climbing over barbed-wire and electric fences, scrambling down precarious inclines, and taking a lot longer to do so than it would have taken if we had simply followed the serpentine road can't be a shortcut, surely. I've checked the word "longcut" in dictionary.com and it doesn't exist! Why not? Today we passed through Murau and tonight we should be sleeping in St. Ruprecht bei Murau. Last night we were put up in the shed of a farmhouse in St. Blasen, by a very kind woman who runs an Urlaub am Bauernhof. Thank you Alexandra Kerschbaumer. Tonight, who knows ...

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