I hate like

"Mr. Eagleton has a lively mind, and his best sentences have a curmudgeonly salt crust. But he too often pushes his observations into sub-Dave Barry, over-the-falls-in-a-barrel comic overkill. Here he is on American’s fondness for the word 'like':

'It is rumored that you can now find tombstones in the States reading: ‘To Our Beloved Son, Brother and Like Husband.’ There are also proposals to modernize certain timeworn slogans to ‘In Like God We Trust’ and ‘My Country Like ’Tis of Thee.’ There will no doubt soon be headlines in The Washington Post reading: ‘I Was Like “Oh My God!” Says President of Harvard.’”

--From: America for Dummies By DWIGHT GARNER [Review of ACROSS THE POND An Englishman’s View of America By Terry Eagleton 178 pages. W. W. Norton anCod mpany. $24.95], New York Times; image from