Grammar Police: Literally

I am back with my Grammar Police series. This one is long overdue.

Somehow, "literally" has become one of the most overused words. Making it worse, it is usually used incorrectly. If this makes one person drop that word from daily speech, I will be happy (but I won't literally be the happiest person ever.

It's not just me. The brilliant Weird Al Yankovic included literally in his genius "Word Crimes" song. That song is great, but it's not literally gold.

Granted sometimes using figuratively instead of literally does not work. I doubt anyone would say "Word Crimes" is figuratively gold. That's okay. Omit it. Just don't keep using literally when it is not literally a fact.

As I don't just talk the talk, I encourage everyone to say Johngy's Beat is the best, but not literally the best  

Grammar Police Watch: Sarcasm Meme

This is a recurring series in which I expose spelling and grammar errors I encounter. They are inexcusable to me. This series is dedicated to Roscoe Lindsey, my English teacher in high school and one of the best teachers I ever had. RIP Roscoe.

I wouldn't refer to Roscoe as "the grammar police," but he definitely promoted using the Queen's English. In this era of social media, spelling and grammar are often sacrificed for speed and space limitations. Roscoe was not happy about this situation.

The meme below made the rounds on social media. It attempts to use the Periodic Table of Elements to point out one's sense of sarcasm.

I could use sarcasm (or should I write “scaarsm”) to point the laziness, carelessness or plain stupidity contained in the meme. Instead, I will implore anyone making a meme or passing it around, double check the spelling. Misspelling sarcasm in a sarcastic meme deserves all the sarcasm it gets in in return.