Frontal Lobotomy

[Joe Varo]

I think that I've always heard this line as follows:


I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy.


I don't know why, but for some reason that extra syllable ("pre") gives
the line, for me at least, a more pleasant sound.

There must be some poetic/rhetorical/scansion/meter reason for this, but I
just can't nail it.

Maybe it has something to do with having 20 syllables rather than 19,
allowing the line to be cut into two lines each of 10 syllables.

Joe