This is just plain weird, in more ways than one.  ¶ 07:16

  So that's what goes on down there.  ¶ 21:40

  This was the perfect thing to see after a 60+ hour workweek. Did the time that went to creating it count towards American productivity numbers?  ¶ 07:13

  Of all the things going on in the world, one article in the Washington Post annoyed me enough to write about it. I think of it as one more sign of eroding standards:

"You'd think a gorge would be a hard thing to hide. You'd think people would notice a thing like that. But the would-be protectors of the Potomac Gorge have to contend with the peculiar fact that most people have never heard of such a thing. It's baffling. It's like: 2 million years of erosion for nothing."

Hearing people say "It's like..." grates on my nerves, but now it's making the jump from annoying verbal tic to inexact printed simile. Aren't there any editors at the Post? I know it's in features, and the writers there are all trying to prove how they can write like the cool kids speak (I've long since stopped trying to figure out what the mod terms du jour for "cool kids" is, so please substitute whatever term you like). Is it too much to expect standard English any more?

It brings to mind that scene in "Point of No Return" where an unkempt and bedraggled Bridget Fonda drives a pencil through a man's hand. It's this kind of thing that will summon Conan the Grammarian to come and kick some butt.   ¶ 19:16