I am at Vitta Pizza sitting next to three young people, like college age, who are … like … talking using lots and lots and lots ‘likes’. They used at least one each clause or sentence. More interestingly, they are obviously in some media, writing, or English course of studies. It drove me to an article on the BBC Website. The author of the BBC article was not overly concerned about the use of like these days. Once I read the article, I returned to eavesdropping on the conversation. It was fun listening in on the conversation of the three, while trying to parse the grammar of the various utterances of ‘like’s.

Like, I’m not a prissy grammar cop; I just like studying language.

After a bit of listening the friends got their order: six pizzas for the three! “Wow, like, that’s a hell of a lot of pizza for, like, three people!”

Rendered without the marvelously versatile ‘like’.

Wow, I think that’s a hell of a lot of pizza for just three people.