Speed Bump by Dave Coverly for July 10, 2020

A likely story.

It’s good to, like, like your work…

I think he will do well when talking to teenage valley girls.

Hopefully it’s not, like, a career in verbal communication.

How many ‘likes’ does it take to get to the center of a TootsiePop?

He can “pursue” it all he wants; it doesn’t mean he’s going to get it.

Cute. But as long as the communication isn’t real-time, he can have time to think it out, write it down, etc. Though I see that as being a shrinking field.

Well, like I think you’re like right about that like for sure!!

That’s as bad as someone STARTING a sentence with “I mean…..”

So, how many of those graduated with useless degrees?

Oh No, You Di’int!

Sounds about right. I remember a time you could read a newspaper or magazine all the way through and not find one spelling or grammar error. Now, I see such errors nearly every day in articles on major news sites.

Nice, but 25 years too late ;-)

Almost a companion piece for the current retro Doonesbury run…

Two other things that drive me mad. a) “impact”…. this used to be a noun… now used as a verb because nobody can distinguish between “effect” (noun) and “affect” (verb). Using “impact” as a verb suddenly became “in” about ten years or so ago. When I was growing up, “impacted” was used for teeth ONLY. Now everyone (except me) is on this bandwagon and it is really lazy of them. It AFFECTS me badly every time I hear that word. b) The American incapacity to use adverbs correctLY (an American would probably say “correct”.) American: “he did real good” when it should be “He did REALLY WELL.” They continually use adjectives when they should be using adverbs. Note the difference between “There was a loud bang!” (loud is an adjective modifying a noun) and “The gun banged LOUDLY.” (an adverb, modifying a verb). You’re welcome! (Let’s see if this has any “effect” on people, or whether they are “affected” at all!

Good start!

I see it’s something you really LIKE!

“you know” and add a smidgeon of upspeak. Anyone else heard the horrible voices and syntax on NPR these days? Ditto for BBC. Iguess NNC English is gone forever.

Sadly, the airwaves are flooded with radio journalists who speak this way. Many of NPR’s program hosts are the worst offenders.

Actually…

Using like as illustrated drives me INSANE!! And the other repetitions listed in the previous comments will make me turn off a video or interviews of people saying these things. Can’t stand it.

Like……did you learn English?

I graduated college in 1970 with a degree in engineering. Some of my contemporaries graduated with degrees in political science. They wondered why they had tougher times finding jobs than we engineers did.

Also this was during the Vietnam conflict. Many of them were looking for draft deferred jobs. Many of us engineers (including myself) had draft exempt jobs – we were already commissioned into the Air Force.

The Air Force kind of has a “thing” for electrical engineers. The Army likes civil engineers and the Navy nuclear engineers. The Marines, on the other hand, just want people who like to fight – I’m glad that there are people willing to do that!

Yeah, like good luck with that.

“Like” is out; “so” is in.

I will give him a like.

He forgot the “initial so”.

Ax ya a question?

Heh, heh. . . maybe, like, in uh television anchoring . . . or something . . . heh

Does it drive anyone else crazy to hear professional communicators talk like:“Yeah .. no … I mean, like … I have … whacha call it? … a talent for expressing … y’know … ideas and things.”

It is what it is.

What are the odds he was the class valedictorian?

Ironically, I have to “like” this post. What makes me crazy, besides the very poor writing, is the mispronunciation of words with consonant blends. It’s moun-tain, people, NOT mount-ain. It isn’t even easy to say; you lose the second consonant.

Kind of.

From yesterday’s Phil Hands:

I,like, like people who have a large vocabulary of ‘like’, like, you know, how they like, use like over and over, so that, like, you will remember them..

CNN may be hiring

You could be President Trump’s Press Secretary!

This would be funny if it weren’t so true. Teaching college chemistry, I was shocked at the lack of communication and writing skills the incoming freshmen had. Many could not read or write above a third grade level, and I am being generous here.

A niece is a English professor – she and many in the field now call it “evolving language”. Translation: it takes too much time and effort to bring the young idiots up to speed.

I was going to write a comment, but was waffling between calling my story being about an interview that took place two, or perhaps three years ago, so I asked someone who was in that project— and was informed the guy and the interview I mentioned “episode” was in 2015, and she remembers it vividly. The new grad showed up dressed in shorts, sandals, and a crumpled, un-tucked, and only partially buttoned shirt, walked over to my desk without checking in, grabbed a couple of books out of one chair, dropped them on the desk, sat down, and propped his feet up in the other chair, and his first words were something like “Hey. I need XXXXXX dollars a year, and if we aren’t talking that or more I don’t need to be here.” I thanked him for having come in, and apologized because we did not have a position that fit his minimum requirements. He snorted, got up, and walked out, but he had never even said what his name was, and I was actually very glad to see him go. The person I asked knew him in college, and still knows his family. He still lives at home, five years later, and his father is angry that “for what he paid for his education the kid should have gotten big job offers.” He thinks it is prejudice because his family is not up the social ladder enough.

They must be in, like, california.

Before Gannet fired everybody at what was the local paper, some of the younger writers regularly made grammatical mistakes in their writing. Stuff that should’ve been drilled into them in grade school.

You’ll get like, a long way from a permanent, like, job.

On Youtube, maybe.

He sounds like a certain member of the US House, from New York.

Must be coming to one of our local TV station news teams – they like to hire ones who cannot speak clearly or recite off a teleprompter.

Jimmy Kimmel did a very funny skit about five years ago about a real news story that a certain percentage of college graduate’s parents are going out on job interviews with them. The graduate stayed in the back playing on his phone and the parents did the interview certain that their “child” had the job. The interviewer kept asking them why they expected the applicant to get the job and they ignored the questions, giving a list of requirements, like a nap once a day or some such. Their final move was to hand the employer the kid’s Epi-pen as they left. Unfortunately you can’t find it on YouTube anymore. Maybe it offended someone!

So I says to the guy, I says…

Majoring in CNN.