From a reader:
By The Beard of Zeus! [Jonah Goldberg]
If you thought the Huckabee rap yesterday was special. You will agree that the Huck has got to snap up this creative talent.
Most. Painful. Thing. Ever. Hello, I wonder if you could help me save my sanity. The use of periods in the middle of sentences in order to emphasize the gravity of a statement has to be absolutely the most annoying online cliche I have ever seen. Everyone does it. Everyone. It was interesting maybe two years ago when whoever it was (you? I wouldnt be surprised) started this stampede, but I cannot take it anymore. Every blog, every commenter, every diarist, does it and thinks they’re being clever. Well, it isnt clever anymore. Now it’s like the visual equivalent of the sound of a broken whiskey bottle being dragged across a chalk board. Please spread the word to your brethren that many of us toiling out here in Readership Land are about to snap.
Much obliged!
Me: Noted! Actually, my pet online peeve are people who use the phrase “Just sayin’” as a cutesy way of saying something barbed. I’ve done it a couple times without catching myself. But I really can’t stand it.