I was walking in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, on the evening of October 23, 2024. A little girl (probably about 9 years old) was lagging behind her father. She asked him to slow down. When he did not slow down, she dropped the following line:
You’re like in the Olympics for walking.
That is a good line for a kid. Imagine what she will be able to put together when she learns about Olympic racewalking.
I recently published a short post on overhearing a woman abusing the word like in an atrocious sentence. On the same day I published that post, I overheard something more articulate, but nevertheless unusual. This was a gentleman in Brooklyn Heights: “They’re not kidding when they say you shouldn’t put pressure on the artery where they went in.” Duly noted. According to my doctor friend, they went with radial access on the man. At least he is on top of things!
I published several New Leaf Journal articles on the subject of the relentless abuse of the word like. My first four articles on the subject were inspired by things I overheard while walking around Brooklyn. I was walking in Manhattan near the Winter Garden the other day when I heard a woman talking on the phone. I recorded the quote contemporaneously in an SMS to my good friend Victor V. Gurbo (good thing I did since I installed a new OS on my phone a few hours later without saving the message): “But like, I was like, whatever.” That’s even worse than like… and like… yeah… Oh yeah? Well I was like I’m going to like save this quote and like literally start a new series like, on my like website,
