I heard this yesterday on the radio.

The complete sentence was something along the lines of “All living U.S. presidents will convene with President-Elect Barack Obama for lunch today.”

The adjective “living” struck me as humorous because I wondered how dead U.S. presidents could convene and therefore why the adjective “living” was necessary.

On the other had, “All U.S. presidents will convene …” would not make sense.

Nearly anyone who heard that would then ask, “All U.S. presidents? You mean, even the dead ones?”

One possible way out of this damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-do-not situation would have been to replace “All living U.S. presidents” with the name of each one.