Slow News Saturday

I hope, anyway, in the Metro section.

PostWatch is primarily a Monday-through-Friday operation, when I have any sense, but I note a very strange story worthy of a posting by Soccer Dad:  Without a Doubt, Ehrlich Has a Way With 1 Word by Matthew Mosk. I think it's supposed to be a harmless little feature, about how Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich uses the word "obviously" all the time, and Mosk quotes a friend of Ehrlich's plus his press secretary. But the framing is a little hostile. Incessant Utterance's Meaning Not So Clear, the subhed reads. Later:

George Lakoff, a University of California Berkeley linguist who has been teaching Democrats how to better harness their words to be more persuasive, said that Ehrlich may well have come by it honestly.

Repetition of such words, he said, are common with certain personalities. "It's a matter of intimidation. It says, 'If this isn't obvious to you, you're an idiot.' "

Well. Now that you mention it.