When the news of my marriage to Imran Khan, Pakistan's cricket star turned politician, broke in January this year, my sister joked that the way I was being introduced in the press – as talaaq yafta (divorcée) – seemed to almost be a qualification, like a degree.
For years, it was virtually a qualification.
Escaping death by malaria seemed almost to be a qualification for America's early Presidents.
They'll come out after two years with almost a master's qualification and we hope some will stay.
And it spurred a host of declarations that began "I support free speech" and which then almost always came with a qualification: "I support free speech, but I don't think it's right to offend anyone…" or "I support free speech, but if you insult my mother then it's OK for me to punch you…" or "I support satire, but only when it's good art…".
Trump also picked a wealthy donor to run the Department of Education and a billionaire with almost no qualifications beyond being a billionaire as deputy secretary of commerce.
That's a qualification up there with saying McKellen might be "almost pregnant".
Johnson-Thompson started day two knowing the 6,200 points needed for Olympic qualification would be almost a certainty if she could land a half-decent long jump.
Messi, undoubtedly the player of 2009 for his week-by-week brilliance with Barcelona, was forlorn and confused in Argentina's confused and almost forlorn qualification campaign.
He has agreed with the government, almost without qualification, on the facts of the case, on the law and now on the harsh remedy of splitting the company in two.
But there is a qualification inserted: "probably".
