Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Literally

I am easily amused by bad usage of the word "literally". I heard a good one the other day by Stacie Scott Turner:

"We need to teach these children that literally the world is their oyster."

Yes, I understand that you can use the word "literally" to mean "figuratively". But in cases like this why not just skip the word entirely? Plus, she was talking about why she is taking a group of children to Africa to see the World Cup. Oddly, the interview was here in DC and the World Cup is almost over. Anyhow, the more important question is probably why was I listening to this person talk in the first place?