Well, at least he was clear that he means no disrepect.

I wasn't thinking of the literal use. Literal language is never empty. The problem with the second example is that it was once effective (I recall being struck by it the first time I heard someone say it) but it has now been used so often it is stale and can be irritating rather than communicative. And it is "empty" in that it (like some other phrases that have been criticized in this thread and elsewhere: "for all intents and purposes"; "I'm up to speed"; "far be it from me ..."; and many, many others) it has been used so often that it is hardly heard -- it is filler, taking up space without any real thought being expressed. There may be meaning there but it could be expressed more effectively, fully, or precisely.

For an extended, and amusing, example of empty speech, search this thread for Private Joker's posting of a George Carlin monologue.

I love that the subject was "wat."

This thread is tilting the crap out of me:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/34...rance-1160815/

What do y'all make of this TED talk?

I find myself using *asterisks*, but that's because I'm old school and was around before they had meta codes. Trying to break that habit along with the double-spacing between sentences. Wait, is that hypen correct?

You were doing so well until the emoticon.

What really pisses me off is that HTML combines consecutive space characters into one. For well over half my life I've typed two spaces between sentences and now I still do it but it doesn't work. The person who created markup language should be shot for changing that.

And if you have access to the underlying code you have to put    just to get two spaces that could be typed with two keystrokes instead of 11. ******ed.

NewOldGuy, if you care, you can use the blank character:∅.∅Highlight, copy, and paste.∅That might be too much of a hassle, though.∅On second thought, I didn't find it tiresome.∅But I'm not sure if it's equivalent to two normal spaces.∅It looks bigger.∅That's what she said.

I think doublespacing is like some sort of old timey thing. Unneeded in the modern era with proportional fonts.

I find it physically impossible to put only one space after a period at the end of a sentence.

You're probably correct as to the reasoning why it is no longer standard. I do still use it when creating documents such as Word, and I miss it when creating web content. I just noticed I put two spaces between the sentences in this paragraph, unconsciously. And they will be stripped out when I click Submit because HTML combines them. It does improve readability even in proportional fonts.

This, as I type it's just automatic. Muscle memory. I'd have to focus on it completely to avoid doing it, and that just seems like way to much work.

Just found out from my friend's proof reading that 2 spaces is unnecessary. There's no way I'm ever going to break that habit.

I met a girl who is a senior RN with a master's degree, and we've gone out once and will again. And when she texts me she uses "your" instead of "you're" 100% of the time.

Why is this tilting me?

I'm not going to say anything because I don't know her well enough yet to do that.

Does anyone else get tilted by: "Fresh Baked" at Subway and other venues?

I've said 'by' for 'buy' in text messages twice in the last couple of weeks. We can't always be perfect.

Can't judge by texts alone, as people treat it as too casual a means of communication to care much (although usually in that case they'll use "ur"). Wait until you have a chance to see her use it incorrectly in a more formal setting, then you can lay into her and really ruin the relationship.

Well that would have actually been correct usage (u=you r=are = you're). The thing about the use of your/you're is that it isn't really a spelling error, it's a usage error. And it's much more sloppy than an ordinary spelling error.

Still gonna tap it though.

That's the spirit.

I don't understand this. What is your issue with it? The way you wrote it is correct, unless you have an issue with Baked being capitalized, but it should be in titles or marketing bullets.

I think there should be a hyphen in "fresh-baked," right? It's an adjective modifying bread.

Fresh is an adjective and Baked is a verb. No hyphen. If the two words created a new idea that is only expressed properly with the words together and is different from their independent meanings, you would hyphenate, in effect creating a compound word that has a third meaning. Or if they were both adjectives or otherwise compound modifiers to a third word.

Edit: That means you could hyphenate "fresh-baked bread" because in this case they are both modifiers.

Maybe it should be "freshly baked," then. Because I don't think Subway is advertising that the bread is both fresh and baked. I think their point is that the bread is freshly baked.

That does seem more correct to me. I think advertisers often avoid the adverb form on purpose.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/45718

Note the Subway example. They are calling that form a "flat adverb" and not an adjective, because it does in fact modify a verb. Droppin the "ly" is becoming the norm in advertising copy.