Check out “that guy” on Urban Dictionary. It’s a meme for our YouTube centric times. Whether you’re Rick Perry who can’t count to three or the graduate who still attends high school dances, now your boneheaded moves are up for review and we can all shudder, and deliver bromantic advice, by saying “don’t be that guy”.
Another phrase which I thought was local in upstate NY is “I like me some….” It’s usually delivered in a self-deprecating way, as in “I have a Ph.D in Nanotechnology but I still like me some wings with Buffalo sauce.” A scholarly article suggests it is from the south but that’s in general referring to usage of an extra and unnecessary pronoun. I say “I like me some…” is a 2011 way to endorse something while simultaneously disavowing in case it turns out not to be cool.
Language is a moving target. These phrases might make it into long term usage or they might be the next “you’ve got mail”. (Remember? If you don’t, thanks for reading an oldster’s blog, young padawan.)
My father was a book editor and we used to argue, almost to the point of coming to blows, about the placement of periods within quotes. As in, Steve Jobs turned to Bill Gates and said, “My OS is better than your OS”. I say the period goes outside the quote unless we know that the speaker delivered a complete sentence vs. a phrase quoted out of context. My father said that the period always goes within the quotes, regardless, because otherwise it was impossible for the typesetter to keep track of the tiny slivers of lead.
Now that type is set on the computer, we can evolve. I am claiming the “acceptable usage” if not the “correct” badge on this one. And by the way, typesetter working with tiny slivers of toxic lead all day long? Don’t be that guy.