Literally pointless iris photo of the day:

Well, I don't think there are any points in the photo. Maybe I'm wrong, but I needed the word literally in there somewhere and that's the way I chose to do it.

Incidentally, I think that this might be the last iris photo for a while. I have others, but even I'm starting to feel the monotony at this point. Or pointless, as it were.

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Now, about literally. The other day I was informed by the newsreader on that Canadian show that airs in the morning (what's it called, again?) that a river in the US was literally bursting at the seams.

"Wow", my morning brain and I thought. "I didn't know that the Americans sew their rivers up. Must be quite the needle to manage that trick. Up here in Canada we just let our rivers wander around naked. No dresses for them, no. I imagine that they feel a bit underprivileged compared to their cousins in the south."

Ok, so I'm not trying to make light of the very serious flooding going on in the American midwest. I'm just wondering how many news producers it takes to look up the meaning of the word literally. It didn't help, of course, that the same script was used for each newsbreak so I was treated to literally the same literally mistake three different times before I left to go to work.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for language usage evolving. I've said before that part of the reason I'm fascinated by language is that it does evolve to fit evolving conditions. Language has to change; if it doesn't, it dies. And as interesting as dead languages may be to the specialists (or the mental magpies like Yours Blatheringly), they aren't terribly useful.

However, accepting that language usage changes doesn't mean I can't cringe when I hear an otherwise intelligent person tell me that she literally couldn't put a book down (glued to your hands, was it?). Want to make it even better? Tell me that she literally couldn't put the book down because it was the most unique thing she'd ever read.

I'd probably rupture an aneurysm.

Meanings change, yes. Meanings even completely reverse... or nearly. Remember absence makes the heart grow fonder? Fond used to mean foolish. Personally, I think that knowing that fact means the proverb makes more sense, but then I'm nothing if not jaded.

Erm, anyway. Yes, I accept that language usage changes. And I grudgingly accept that literally is becoming a general intensifier and that unique doesn't really mean a bloody thing nowadays. I accept it, but acceptance doesn't mean that I have to like it.

After all, I accept that it costs me twice as much to fill my car's tank as it did ten years ago. I don't exactly rejoice about it, though.

Ah well.

I was going to say more, but I'm having a pretty bad day for typing accurately. I'd expect that I'll be editing this a few dozen times as it is. For now, though, if you're looking for more (should I say literally looking for more?) you could try this or this.

As for me, I need to put the next load in the washing machine.




Well, not literally need...