Friday, January 16, 2009

Literally,

There are many things about how people use the English language that drive me mad. Things that drive me almost off the deep-end to the point where I feel like attacking violators with a hard-bound copy of "Strunk & White."

As I was making myself a cup of tea this morning I just heard this on the TV news show blaring in the agency kitchen. "When Suzanne Martin heard that the US Air flight landed in the Hudson river, her eyes were literally glued to the screen."

Ouch.

Literally means really. Virtually means metaphorically.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually George, the true outrage of this goes beyond the unfortunate statement about her eyes being "literally glued to the screen," and to the fact that--upon learning that a US Airways jet made the first water landing in commercial aviation history--she kept her mouth shut, instead of spontaneously screaming something appropriate, like say "Jesus H. Christ in a chickenbasket!!" I mean, really; when you witness a miracle, you gotta say something.