Count the "likes"

OK, this is a pet peeve of mine. Dori, you are a professional talk show host who has spent years learning how to speak and project on the radio. Aaron Brown even introduced you to his voice coach. Some people get nervous and don't speak well especially given the pressure of speaking in public or to an audience of thousands. Some people studder. Some people say "you know" over and over. This young man says "like". He's not alone among people who have problems speaking in public. I think it's out of bounds and of poor taste to make fun of someone's speaking disorder. Saying "like" over and over is no different than someone who studders. It has NO CORRELATION to how intelligent a person is. Indeed, many great people have had speaking disorders of one kind or another. To finish I'll quote Claudius from the great Masterpiece theater production of "I Claudius": "Isn't what a man says far more important (long studder) than how long (more studder) he takes to say it?" Touche, Claudius, Touche.

Johan in Burien, the issue may be presented as saying "Like" a lot but you can't really compare it to something like a stutter because a stutter can't be helped by the person whereas using "like" (or any other filler phrase) is something that can be worked at and practiced in order to overcome. Beyond that though, if you were to listen to the transcript without all of the "likes" inserted, you would see that there is little said that is of actual substance. He was asked what the protest was about and never really answered; he was asked what it was like to be tasered and he did not answer, instead saying that every human rights group out there ("just about") has condemned tasers. Well, that doesn't answer the question though. Perhaps he should not be made fun of for using "like" so much, but truly, how much more do we as a society need to accept in the name of "tolerance" before we realize that our acceptance has made us lower and lower on the global scale because of our own refusal to properly speak our own language - even as OTHER cultures put a strong emphasis on learning that same language? China, India, Japan - all require ESL in their national schools. We learn... ?? maybe Spanish and French, if that. Education is key; using it comes in close second. If you do not sound educated, it will not matter how educated you truly are if you make no effort to present yourself as an educated and coherent individual.

...like, even keep, like, track of how many, like, times he was like, "like". And I'm like, you know, that's just, like, wrong.

I think we agree more than we disagree. I would be happy to engage in a discussion about the content of what the protester had to say but Dori did not choose to make that the subject of his blog post. I listened to most of the interview when I was working yesterday and I understood what he was saying. The protesters main point was that many of the problems in the middle east, and Iraq, Iran, and afghanistan in particular are the result of western (ie USA and British) meddling in the region. The space here does not allow me to cite many details (or even write in paragraph form) but as a matter of history the protester is correct. It was the breakup of the Ottoman empire after WWI that divided the region with disregard to ethnic and historical ties. Couple that with the CIA's coup that installed the Shah in Iran, together with our backing of Ossama Bin Lauden in his fight against the Soviets in Afgahnistan (which led directly to his forming al queda...a fact left out of "Charlie Wilson's war), and it's not hard to see why the area is a mess. I wish could write more about this but I can't. Americans (like Dori) want so badly to believe that we are always the "good guys" that "fight for freedom" that they are often blind to truth. Or at least blind to the fact that "truth" really is a point of view. See, I really wish we could have discussions about real issues like this one. That's why I'm disappointed in Dori for making fun of the way a nervous young man spoke on the radio.

While I can see your point, this whole "like" phase that our younger folks are all caught up in today is not at all a speech impediment, but more a lazy and annoying way of speaking. I'm not even immune to it and I hate it!! When I catch myself using "like" as a filler, I try and catch myself because it just sounds so unintelligent. It's the whole Britney and Paris thing. In no way would Dori have gone through the trouble of putting this together if he wasn't in some way making a point about certain younger members of our society today. This is no different than when people use the phrase "you know what I'm sayin'?" as a filler. All these types of uses annoy the heck out of me!!

Did you like contact his Army friends that he kept talking about?

Don't they have "Pubic Speaking" as a required class in high school anymore. I had a problem with using "and, uh" before I took that class (which I hated) but it taught me to be aware of when I said it and to repeat the sentence over again omitting the "and, uh". For a while I repeated myself a lot but now it's completely gone from my vocabulary. Now if I could just learn how to use punctuation...

A while back, Dori counted Obama using "ah" well over 90 times in a two minute speech. I also find it annoying when people say "you know?" or "basically"

We have to get control of the english language in this country before it gets control of us. Verbal communication is dieing. People don't talk. They text, email or IM among other tools that make it easier for them not to look someone in the eye. By the way, "like" has replaced "you know" as the modern day crutch word for those with a limited vocabulary in case no one noticed. (Not to be confused with "whatever" and "basically" which are still widely used but generally in the intellectual circles only)

A few dings were missed! Even your counter couldn't keep up!