I worked with adult ED and low functioning individuals once upon a time, and among them were some quasi idiot-savants with interesting thought talents. The commonality among them is that every single conversation started with the same opening. I also learned in a place where a homeless person, (the very essence of individuality) used to visit, and he apparently had verbatim recall of a certain acharon. He would sit silently in a noisy shiur, until he would chirp up ‘But the X (acharon) says….
So to me, the IN THE ALTER HEIM opener has a certain nostalgic charm to it.