You see, the customer had absent-mindedly finished his transaction but left his wallet on some counter.

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Once I absent-mindedly put a bit of SodaMix in the water before I tried to carbonate it.

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As he spoke, he waved his hand in a vague, regal gesture, like somebody absent-mindedly swatting away a fly.

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Woodland drew Morse dots and dashes as he sat on the beach and absent-mindedly left his fingers in the sand where they traced a series of parallel lines.

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Tolkien, he reported, would write long lists of words on the blackboard, obscuring them with his body as he droned on, then would absent-mindedly erase them without turning around.

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"Jimmy was shining the ball and when he turned it over it was almost as if he was absent-mindedly assessing the rough side, " he told BBC Radio 5 live.

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