I think Carlin missed the funnier part of "near miss": the construction implies that every time a plane taxis, takes off, cruises, lands, all without hitting an

I think Carlin missed the funnier part of "near miss": the construction implies that every time a plane taxis, takes off, cruises, lands, all without hitting anything else, that it merely missed all the other planes! We could look at the planes in the sky and say "that's a miss, that's a miss, look how much that one missed by, how boring" It's only when they miss by a little, when they're very close, that we we get excited and say "wow, what a near miss!"