again in "Today is the oldest you've ever been and the youngest you'll ever be again."?

Question

Saw this sentence today. It has two variations, one ends with *again* and one without it. While the *again* does have a nice ring to it, I kind of feel that it makes no grammatical/semantic sense for it to appear in this sentence, but I don't know why. Does it have to do with whether the "ever...again" part is in a negative/interrogative situation vs. non-negative, which this sentence is?Is there any grammatical justification for this *again*? What does it mean? Are there any other sentences that involve such a non-negative *again*? Hope I'm making myself clear enough :-)On another note, I also see *Today, **you are** the oldest...*, which is admittedly "more" grammatical but less "catchy". In either form, the question about *again* remains.

Answer 1

I believe that the reason this sentence seems bothersome is both semantic and grammatical. Semantically, the word "again" indicates a repetition, and yet the sentence clearly states (and is true) that you will never be able to repeat that age or "be that age again." The only form that "ever" and "again" seem to be acceptable is in a question: "Will you ever be that age again?" If you want to include "again" in the answer, then you must use the negative "never." "No, I will never be that age again." This would be the correct grammatical form.