Hey, talking heads: Please stop saying this when you start a sentence

July 07, 2020Stephen H. Provost

Since the book came out, a few more clichés have entered the mainstream — and become embedded there like the shell of a popcorn kernel that digs in underneath your gums and refused to be dislodged by Waterpik, toothpick or fingernail. Perhaps the most ubiquitous of these is a single two-letter word that it seems like half the people interviewed on cable news channels. It’s the “y’know” of 2020, except it’s worse because you can’t avoid it by tuning the speaker out halfway through the first sentence. It’s the first thing out of their mouths.