Ever seen someone chided for using the word "literally"? I mean when someone says "My mouth was literally on fire after eating that pepper" and then some nitpicking language fundamentalist says "No, I saw your mouth and it was not on fire". David Cross had a bit like that, maybe he started the nonsense...
As it turns out, this elucidating Slate.com piece by an editor at the OED explains that not only is it perfectly ok to use "literally" that way, but in fact Louisa May Alcott, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, and James Joyce all used the word in that context. Nit-pickers - 0, Masters of the English Language - 1.
This is why a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
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