Great language-geek post at defective yeti today, in which he mounts a wonderful defense of the word "like":
Really, "like" is more than just a word — it is practically a auxiliary verb that puts the entire statement into a new tense. Call it the "Past Approximate." If someone tells you they once ate fourteen eggs in one sitting, you recognize that is a boast; if someone says they ate, like, fourteen eggs, you know instinctively that the number was probably closer to five.
UPDATE: after discussing off-list, a buddy recommended Geoffrey Nunberg's books, and his NPR commentary of a few years ago, "Like, Wow!"
