Like Water for Chocolate
Reminded me of a memorably funny story published in my column years ago (1995!), under the headline "COULD, LIKE, YOU, LIKE, CHECK AGAIN?":
Writes Janet of Summit Avenue:
``A friend was telling me about a radio program that dealt with a topic germane to Generation X. Ellen was amazed at how the X'ers being interviewed seemed incapable of speaking an entire sentence, or even two or three words in a row, without using `like': `It was, like, unbelievable, how often, like, you know, they said ``Like.'''
``This led me to relate to her a recent encounter I had across the counter of my local video-rental store. I knew that `Like Water for Chocolate' had been released on video and wanted to know if this store had a copy. The conversation went something like this:
``Me: `Hi. Do you have ``Like Water for Chocolate''?'
``X'er: `Just a second. I'll check. No, it's, like, not here.'
``Me: `Are you sure?'
``X'er: `Yeah, there's, like, nothing even close to that.'
``Me: `Can you check again? It's ``Like Water for Chocolate.'''
``X'er: `There's, like, no movies that start with ``Water.'''
``Me: `The movie is ``Like Water for Chocolate.'' It's under ``L,'' not ``W.'''
``X'er: `Really? ``Like Water for Chocolate''?'
``Me: `Like, really!'''