[QUOTE=Learjeff]
…there’s research that shows that our brains are amazingly good at rationalizing, without us being aware of it.
[/QUOTE]
I’m sure this is what’s happening with my folks (post 53, going deaf) their brains are processing the half heard jumble while they’re thinking of what to say, so they’ll say exactly the same phrase as the person they were listening to and then insist it was an original idea; they can’t be repeating it, because they never (consciously) heard it in the first place.