So, this is about the word, so

This article was published in the August 19 Virginian-Pilot Forum section most likely because the paper felt everyone needed a break from politics. I don't know if anyone else has observed this trend but I have been hearing it everywhere.

The article was accompanied by a picture of Hope Solo and a caption that read: "So, apparently, it's 'Hope Solo,' not 'So Lo.'"

 

 

 

 

So, this is about the word, so

 

So I was listening to an interview today on television, which reinforced for me that a brand new fad is combing the country.

So you might ask, “So what is this revolutionary craze sweeping the nation, and possibly the world?"

So I will tell you. “So” is it.

So what is it, you ask?

“So” is it, I tell you. So let me explain.

 

So what I am noticing is that every day more questions being asked by interviewers are being answered by statements beginning with the word “so”.

 

So maybe you are thinking that this might be simply a case of Beverly Hills teenage valley girls speak and surely not the way the civilized folks speak.

 

So you would be wrong to assume this. So let me tell you how widespread this so-so new way of talking has become.

So I have heard economists begin every sentence with so. So I have heard Congressmen, diplomats and scientists begin every sentence with so.

 

So, today, an astronaut talking about the vehicle that will land in a few hours on the planet Mars, described what would happen in these words.

 

“So the modular carrying the rover will hit the Mars atmosphere. So when it does a parachute will deploy and—”

 

So, and so what?

 

So what happens next isn’t really important.

So what is important is why does every sentence have to begin with the word “so?”

 

So didn’t we already go through this nightmare with the word “like?”

So didn’t we learn our lesson?

So who starts these trends?

 

So I think maybe some public relations firm must hear someone, somewhere start a sentence with “so” and decide that it sounds just different enough to make ordinary sentences and ideas a little more appealing and so it starts advising its clients to employ this unique new way of talking but then other public relations firms latch on to the idea and it starts spreading like so many cultured cells in a Petri dish.

 

So some people even hear it on their own and are attracted to it like so many flies to flypaper and before you know it, every Tom, Dick and Harry so and so is starting every stupid sentence with “so.”

 

So I was wondering if this was simply an American thing or if the whole world had jumped on the “so” bandwagon. So I turned to London where the Olympics, the largest international gathering of athletes were taking place.

So I hear an interviewer ask a girl on the Mexican soccer team who does she think is the best female soccer goalie in the world at this time.

 

“Solo,” she answers cautiously, perhaps not wanting to offend her own goalkeeper.”

 

So I am at a complete loss because for the life of me I have never heard of a soccer goalie named Lo.