I had a similar 'secret language' experience, though not at all related to AS. I have a diabetic pet, and the vet was explaining how to use insulin. Naturally,

I had a similar 'secret language' experience, though not at all related to AS. I have a diabetic pet, and the vet was explaining how to use insulin. Naturally, one of our concerns was cost. He kept mentioning how he'd seen many people use insulin for months after it's expiration-date. He was clear that you should "always follow the instructions", but that occasionally he'd seen people use old insulin, and, as long as they were consistently checking their glucose, it worked fine for them. We finally figured out his message: The insulin expiration date might or might not be valid. Testing is better than going by the bottle's expiration date, within reason of course. He couldn't tell us to ignore the date, but he could tell us about when he'd seen it work past the date.