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I'm one of these so-called "Generation X"-ers, and although I resent
being labelled as much as the next person, I have to admit that the word
"like" still has a tenacious hold on my colloquial conversation,
especially when I'm talking with other people my age.  So while the
following article might be a fun read for all of you, regardless of age,
it's especially dedicated to my fellow generation-mates, because "like"
is not just a word, it's a way of life.  :)
        - Kim-An Lieberman (miette@u.washington.edu)
- - ------
Forwards, like, removed.
"We really aren't, like, that inept"

from _The Oregonian_, March 12, 1993  by JIM FREDERICK

  Our elders would have us believe that we - the twentysomething generation,
Generation X, the MTV generation - are doomed to fail, not in the least by
our supposed grammatical ineptness. Paramount to our problems, they claim, is
a tendency to pepper our dialogue with the word "like" as if it were a verbal
tic, demonstrating our abysmal vocabularies and utter lack of neurological
activity. Don't believe it. Much more than the random misfire of a stunted
mind, "like" is actually a rhetorical device that demonstrates the speaker's
heightened sensibility and offers the listener added levels of color, nuance
and meaning.
  Take the sentence, "I can't drive you to the mall because, like, my mom
took the car to get her hair frosted." Here, "like" is a crucial phonic
punctuation mark that indicates, "Important information ahead!" In our
frenetic society, where silence is no longer powerful but completely alien,
the dramatic pause doesn't carry much rhetorical clout. We employ "like" to
replace that now-obsolete device.
  Or consider: "The human tongue is, like, totally gross." The use of "like"
acknowledges that the tongue is not exactly totally gross, but something
similar to totally gross. It shows awareness that an indictment this harsh
needs tempering. We repeatedly display such linguistic savvy in everyday
observances: "My dad is, like, an anal-retentive psycho."
  Both acknowledge that the concept of direct correspondence between word and
meaning has been little more than a deluded fantasy. In a new, ingenious
usage, the word "like" becomes a verb form employed to recount an earlier
conversation. Consider, "And she was like, 'You told us all to meet in front
of the Burger King.' And I was like, 'Whatever, you liar. Why would I when I
knew it was going to snow?'" The difficulty here in determining what was
actually said is not a limitation, but rather the strength of "like" as a
dialogical indicator. It allows us to present the complete experience of a
conversation, not just one of its component parts.
  "Like" is more than a shabby substitute for "said" (as is commonly
supposed), but a near equivalent of the word "meant." Also, "like" is often a
broker of diplomacy.  In the sentence, "Tiffany, you, like, still owe me that
$10, you know," the skillful inclusion of "like" eases a potentially
confrontational statement. The British do this sort of thing all the time
with words like "rather," "quite" and "actually," and no one complains.
  Our generation is not nearly as bad off as we have been told. Hardly a
generation of jacked-in, zoned-out illiterates, we the bike couriers, the
paralegals, the skate punks and the mall rats are actually a generation of
poets. With a sublime sensibility to the power of "like," we view our lives,
indeed human existence itself, as a grand, eternal and everchanging metaphor.

c1993, The New York Times
 -------------------------------------------
 Jim Frederick, a senior English major at Columbia University, wrote this
article for The New York Times op-ed service.