Definitely the phone.

Didn’t show up to court? Oh well, I guess that’s life in prison then.

Wow, you pulled those out, impressive! I really mean it!

I’m a big Mark Twain fan, and all it proves is that our idols can be wrong, LOL. I’m dying on this hill.

If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it’s a golden idol.

Well, sure, I’d want to see the exact context of the use. It would be one thing if Twain was using it that way himself, it would be another if he was putting it into a character’s mouth, which would add a slight nuance.

A modern example would be the guy in Parks & Rec who used “Lit’rally” often, and with emphasis, in situations that were clearly NOT Literal. I wouldn’t assume that the writer endorses the concept.

We gotta stick together against the Vocabulary Philistines.

That’s not what I was doing. I was illustrating that this controversy about Literally is particularly IRONIC, another grammar word that is often used incorrectly.

And you didn’t understand that, so your assignment for tomorrow is a 1000 word essay on whether your misunderstanding of my post constitutes irony itself, or if it is another example of false irony, such as the Alanis Morissette song.

I used to use a lot more commas, to make my writing sound more like speaking, but it interrupts the flow of the thought. I’ve found that it’s often better to just keep on flowing, and only use commas for major clauses, or for side thoughts that are still relevant enough to not use parentheses. Also to separate thoughts so they don’t get mixed together.

When I end up with a paragraph like this, I’ll start editing our commas, and perhaps rearrange my thoughts.

That’s the dopey example that they always use - Shakespeare made up all sorts of words - except it’s clearly wrong, and you aren’t Shakespeare, dummy.

Many words have immutable definitions, and they cannot be changed, period. UP cannot never mean DOWN no matter how many stupid people use it incorrectly. A DOG isn’t a CAT, no matter how many stupid people can’t tell the difference. The sky is Blue, even if you determine that you think it’s Pink, and now Pink refers to all things Blue.

If people use an immutable word wrong, we shouldn’t change the definition, we should tell the people using it wrong that they are wrong, and to stop being stupid.

We don’t just agree to be as stupid as they are. That’s what’s wrong with the world. It’s easier to go along with the stupid people, than expect them to get smarter. Or just tell them to shut the fuck up.

Literally?

There was a time when Literally was the word we used to eliminate ambiguity. Using it to mean the opposite of its originally intended, and accepted, definition injects ambiguity, the very thing the word is supposed to prevent.

That’s literally an example of IRONY (another often wrongly used word).

“He spent the day literally watching paint dry,” explains that he was watching the paint dry, and not just using a common idiomatic expression for laziness or boredom.

We had a perfectly good word, which people with decent vocabulary used properly, and then people with bad vocabulary ruined it.

Why should those who had a decent vocabulary in the first place improve theirs, instead of the people with the poor vocabulary who ruin the accepted definitions of words improve theirs?

I agree, the bastardization of Literally is one of my vocabulary pet peeves, along with Crescendo.

Valid. I actually love piggies.

I think that every time one of these psychos assumes room temperature. Upon hearing of their death, I’d love the satisfaction of imagining their reaction upon entering Hell for the eternity of fiery torture that we’ve been promised.

But alas, it’s all a fairy tale, as real as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

the statue is certainly not a baby cow.

No, it’s a giant pig.

Countries need to sit down and figure out how to make it work because as it stands, jobs have turned into a form of slavery by design.

Yeah, they already did that, and “slavery by design” is what they came up with.

The next time, we don’t consult our country, we force them to do what WE want.

When they come up with it on their own, and push it relentlessly despite obvious and enormous resistance from the citizens, you know they been paid off handsomely.

Disney, Iran, GW Bush, etc. Somehow MAGA manages to consistently be worse than the worst people on Earth.