When did ‘literally’ become, literally, the most annoying word in the English language? Fairly recently I would guess, because ‘like’ as in ‘I was like… seriously?’ or ‘that’s like, so unfair’ was easily winning the title for many years. ‘Like’ has become a filler, taking the place of um and er, and generally making the speaker sound a bit of a moron but literally (used to) have some authority, emphasising the slightly unexpected veracity of whatever. No longer. My summer hols have been spent involuntarily counting how many L words can be crammed into one sentence. The most was four. And while we’re at it, what’s ‘reaching out’ all about? Answers on a postcard please.
On my annual sabbatical from bridge I came across this hand, pictured above in a book on Declarer play.
West led his singleton heart and, as is so often the case, declarer had to do the right thing at trick one — what would you do?
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