Ok, Sure, He Was Acquitted But....

So I'm watching coverage of the Michael Jackson trial, and the reporter is talking about the instructions the jurists received. She holds up a stack of papers clipped together and comments on how in-depth, dense and physically huge the instructions are. She says it is "literally a book."

Which reminded me of a pet peeve I momentarily forgot. The incorrect use of the word "literally." People use it to signify that they aren't using hyperbole and do in fact mean to attribute whatever lofty descriptions or features to the thing they are referencing.

Except half the time all they are doing is resorting to hyperbole, or at least referring to something that could be. I remember watching a football game last year and the dumbass ex-player-turned-commentator said, "that was the hardest hit I have ever seen. He literally took his head off with that tackle."

Uh....? Literally? Is that the ball carriers head rolling on the 37-yard-line, still in the helmet? Oops, no, just the ball from when he fumbled.

Which brings me to the jury instructions the reporter had. Literally a book? Is that paperwork profesionally bound and published? No. You downloaded it from the Internet. It is not literally a book.

Though you literally wasted an hour of my life with your incoherent babble. Thanks.