Did she really say “literally have the weight the world on your shoulders”? Because if that were true, Kofi Annan would literally be crushed instantaneously into a pancake of infinite thinness. We’re sticklers on a few points of usage in the Bell household, and the constant misuse of “literally” is public enemy number one. That a journalist of Ms. Couric’s stature (smirk!) would say “literally” when she means its exact opposite — “figuratively” — makes my blood boil.

But not literally, because then my boiling blood would come shooting out of my eyes and ears and get on the dog, with whom I arose at 5 AM today.

And I got a spam this morning that started, “Dear Dearest,” which I thought was a cute way to be welcomed to my computer, but seemed maybe to leave out “Dearer.”