So What?

so's my dick.

Well, you might as well call out the offending bloggers by name, instead of making me wade through a month of my own posts to see if you mean me. I guess you don't. I also checked Lydia's, Kenny's, Cynth's, Ryan's, and Tom's. Only Kenny tested positive. Maybe this blog post wasn't meant for me?

I don't mind the "so." I like it, actually. There's a warm aura of nonprickery to it. Blogs are published, but they are also personal.

And you know, for whatever reason, Kenny's so-laden blog is the one I look forward to reading the most. I don't know if he's just a better writer, or if he writes about more interesting things. Maybe it's the warmth of his so that gets me out of bed in the morning. What I'm trying to say is that, as a way of saying thank you to Kenny, I will be employing many a post-initial so in the future. And thank you, Matt, for bringing this previously unnoticed courtesy to my attention.

I am guilty of using "So" in my last to posts so now I have to go back and change them. Hrmpf!*

*sound used to denote grumpy resolution to bear the challenges heeped upon me.

Of course, I didn't mean to imply that the introductory "so" decreases the overall value of the blog. Often the substantive posts end up being good, it's just that the "so" is kind of a squirt in the eye.

See recent corrections here

Ooh, great rant. I think the heinous Friends thing and the heinous "So..." sentence opener are grammatically two different things, and I think the "So..." sentence opener has a longer history.

The Friends-inspired so is actually an intensifier that's being used as an adverb. You know, like "bloody well." Compare: Matt is bloody well going to pass the bar. Matt is so going to pass the bar. Same, except that the "so" one is so much more grating and stupid-sounding.

The "So" as sentence opener is different. It's actually functioning like a "whereas," establishing a premise. It puts me in mind of the titles of the "helpful" pamphlets you get in high school: "So you fucked up and got pregnant," or "So you've decided to take fourteen units of metal shop." It's kind of like it's saying, "Whereas you got yourself knocked up, therefore this pamphlet is going to tell you in three pages exactly how much trouble you're in." The "so" in peoples' posts and conversations does the same thing. "Whereas I saw Herbie: Fully Loaded this weekend, therefore you are now going to hear a point-for-point recap of the plot." But it's sneaky, because although it's establishing a premise, it's pretending that it's giving you a conclusion. ("So" should be doing the work of "therefore," which is exactly what it does in your last example: "[Whereas] I have terrible taste in movies, so [therefore] I saw The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants this weekend.") It creates the illusion of conversational continuity so that it seems like the statement is coming out of something that was previously being discussed and not like a total non-sequitur.

It's also hedgy and elaborately casual. I think people should just jump in and say what they're going to say, without winding up. So you saw Herbie: Fully Loaded. So now I know you have a Lindsey Lohan thing. Therefore, I admire your balls for telling me out loud.

I never thought about it or did it on purpose. It does look like I went on a bit of a "so" streak last week, on literally every other post (at least no consecutive posts, though). I believe I did it in an effort to create the impression that we're already midcoversation and here is something I'm going to bring up. In many cases, it's to suggest a sequence of events that's already in progress ("So I told my mom about my blog..." "So I'm printing out a document...").

I don't think using "so" is bad, but I won't defend the lameness of using the same construction to open several different posts over a short period of time. I think the real problem here is overuse. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

And aww, thank you Zack. I like your blog best, too. Our blogs should go steady.

Katie, funny you should use that example. I've seen Herbie: Fully Loaded twice. But you jump to conclusions. You neglect the possibility that I have a Herbie thing. But I didn't start my post about it with "So." So that's good. And it's LindSAY, thank you kindly.

This wasn't an anti-Kenny rant by any means. There are other offenders, they just apparently don't fall within the watchful eye of Zack. Though I admit that seeing to "so"s in one day on Kenny's blog stoked the coals.

Up next: Matt's incoherent rant about why people need to fucking cool it with the Comic Book Guy references already.

Worst Up-Next Ever

Zing!

So I'm sitting here cringing about the Lohan misspelling. Kenny, it never occurred to me that one might have a Herbie thing, but now that you point it out, it seems much more plausible.

so, I'm like so totally not going to stop.

And while, I'm much less often guilty of starting an entry with "so" rather than a new paragraph, I'm sure I've done it enough. You have it right, I blog the way I talk. And until I decide to not do that, that's the way it's gonna be. It's not really a choice, it's a result of watching too much 80's TV.

Matt, you can't critique blogs for their style. Although there are plenty of proffessional blogs out there, for most people, blogs are just that, a log up on the web. People just want to share their personal thoughts and very often it can become a stream of consciousness sort of thing. You can't tell people to not do this and not do that and grammer rule number 434 this. You'll end up with a lot of bloggers second guessing what they can and cannot do in their own personal space. I believe in maximum creativity when it comes to this sort of thing so I'll gladly bear through a cliche or two to see that happen. The worse thing that could happen would be some sort of ...brrr... Chicago Manual of Style for Blogging.

And let me premptively defend my Comic-book guy Reference on my blog. I used the title becuase I thought it fit. I honestly don't use Simpsons references that often (well at least not as much as some fanboys).

So in summary maximum creative freedom, good, stifling of it in any form, eat my shorts.

So, what your point?

A Resolution: So, to annoy the shit out of Katie and Matt;
So, I hardly post as it is;
So, they don't read my goddamn weblog regardless, even the few times I may post;
Be it resolved that for at least the next month:
I will begin any weblog post I make with an inappropriate "Whereas" which will be read as a conversational "So, ".

Yes, I'm a "so-er." I started my most current non-recipe post with it. I'm going to blame our high school, Kenny, since we both seem to do it. (I doubt Matt was targeting my blog. We've only met once, and I doubt he reads it.) I don't think I'm going to stop, although I will try and cut down. I like to write in a conversational style, and truthfully, most of the time my conversation sucks.

I have already self-criticized my overuse of the word "so" (at least a year ago). Thus, I have license to continue using it because I am now "aware."

My only remaining inexcusable vice is my overuse of the words "stuff" and "really great!"

Now that THAT's taken care of, I can continue on my way and remind myself how much i never learned Contracts.

Unless I missed it, how about the use of the word "so" to END a sentence? Example; "We went to Sea World this weekend... so....". Typically, this "so" is delivered with a slight shrug of the shoulders, the same shrug as to say "oh well".

I recently attended a training class in which the instructor used the word "so" NO LESS than one time per minute, on average. She sounded completely at a loss of any formal communication skills, as do most of the people in mainstream society. This is most certainly a failure in the schools our tax dollars are funding.

While on this rant.. "not so much"? Where did THAT come from??

I'm actual guilty of the punctuative "so." I feel like an idiot every time I do it. I did it in front of a client last summer. Bad news.