Here is an early version of the opening of The Impossibly --

The first time we met it was about a stapler, I think. I knew the word for it, and she didn't, and although in retrospect it seemed to us certain that she would have finished by making her interest in acquiring a stapler understood, I had carefully examined and tested three pens, two mechanical pencils, and a highlighter, and still she stood at the counter calmly gesticulating, so I stepped forward, slightly, and said the word.

And here is what it became until near the very end of the revision process --

The first time we met it was about a stapler, I think. I knew the word, and she didn't, so I stepped forward, slightly, and said the word.

And what it is in the book --

The first time we met it was about a stapler, I think. I knew the word, and she didn't, so I stepped forward, slightly, and said it.

The substantive cut above was suggested by my editor Chris Fischbach, who rightly felt the thing got too clotted too quickly.