Okay, admittedly, I was an English major. But it really drives me nuts, this current fashion of using "literally" to add emphasis to a statement, even if it is NOT literally true.
But in a recent story about a UU minister's service, a journalist misused "literally" that gave me quite a humorous vision.
Snip:
"Reverend Trumbore, of First Unitarian Universalist Society, wanted to try something new for the first Sunday of the New Year, and his Sunday morning service had the congregation in stitches. Literally."
Literally?
Literally???
A vision of Rev. Trumbore, running through the aisles of his church, slashing his congregants with a pair of scissors, arose in my literalist brain. "At the end of the service, still laughing, but grimacing from the pain, the congregation carpooled to the local hospital where most received between 3-8 stitches where the minister had wounded them."
I'm slated to give a humor service the Sunday before Valentines Day, but I don't plan to literally have my congregation in stitches.
That, you can only get from a professional minister.
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http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/your_news/capital_region/default.asp?ArID=202156
I was also an English major, and the "literally" thing also ranks up there on my list of pet peeves! It's probably right above people who say, "I feel badly."
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