Like Lie

The Case Of Like

Anatoly Liberman | OUP Blog | 19th July 2023

"In grammar, popular usage almost always wins," but do we have to rejoice in its triumph? A curmudgeonly take on the modern usage of "like", which has overtaken "you know" as a default filler word. Why is this change, like, so irritating to this author, and many others? Its ubiquity: "There is a difference between a solitary pimple (which may even be 'cute') and a skin rash" (1,310 words)

Delts Don’t Lie

Ellie Rose Mattoon | JSTOR Daily | 19th July 2023

Many Renaissance artists used male models for their female figures, but only Michelangelo's look like "men with breasts". The musculature always gives him away. "In his Doni Tondo, the Virgin Mary’s biceps bulge as she lifts baby Jesus into the air, and the breasts on the sculpture Night look like a misshapen afterthought." Why? It seems deliberate; his work is too precise (1,417 words)