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OT: "literally"

Are you literally driven up the walls, as I am, by the misuse of
"literally" as in the start of this sentence? As a list-moderator, I see it
almost daily. Sometimes its amusing, but mostly it's frustrating.


It occurs, in a variant form, in David Pogue's column:

"On trips, I literally used to pack two laptops."
Gee, he *literally* used to! Not metaphorically, used to. Or is it
literally pack, with a misplaced modifier? Not metaphorically pack, as in,
uh . . .Oh, wait, he obviously meant to differentiate from the figurative
meaning of "two"!


Thanks for indulging my metaphorical venting.



Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx