Literally Watch!!!!!

     I has been so long since I last issued a "Literally Watch" that I've forgotten if I used a particular format with it. For those who have never seen one, Literally Watch is a Public Service of this blog, alerting readers to the fact that we have found another person--in public--misusing the word literally.

     In this case it was a certain news anchor with a last name that starts with a "P" who works in TV News in Montgomery, but not at WAKA.

     In a story about medical bills, she said:



"SOME PEOPLE ARE LITERALLY DROWNING IN DEBT"



   If I had any artistic talent, I would draw a picture of those poor people being smothered by a huge pile of...what? Zero signs? Unpaid hospital bills? This is a tough one to visualize, since debt is not a physical thing, much less a liquid. Maybe liquefied hospital bills?

     Anyway, what she really should have said, of course, was that some people are figuratively drowning in debt.

     I must remember to advise my ENG students to avoid using the word at all, unless they have taken Tim's mini-course in the meaning of literally and figuratively. Coming soon to a University near you.