I just saw the Liar-in-Chief on cable teevee. In addition to incorrectly claiming that Michael Cohen had already been sentenced to a long prison term, he used his favorite word:
If I had $100 for every time Trump says very, I'd be richer than him.
— Shecky (@Adrastosno) November 29, 2018
Trump’s mangled and gnarly syntax has actually impacted my writing style. When I finish a draft of anything but a shopping list, I scrub out the verys. Occasionally they survive but that’s a very rare occurrence. Oops, I did it again.
The last word goes to Richard Thompson:
Wasn’t it Mark Twain who advocated using ‘God damned’ in place of ‘very’ – on the theory that your editor would then delete it wherever it appeared, leaving your prose as it should have been in the first place … ?