Gooseberry getting over it

It is time to confront one of the most important issues of our time.

I know what you are thinking, "surely he is not going to go there?"

To be honest, it is not the sort of thing one likes to think about, or talk about, but ignoring it will not make it go away and letting this sort of thing fester just leaves a heap of oozing puss.

I am of course talking about the extreme use of the word "over" in the English language.

Writers make this mistake all the time.

"Over," just like the word up, is a preposition. It denotes location, a place, a position. When used as a descriptor for increased amounts, however, it often leaves one wondering "how'd they do that hover thing anyway?"

Example: The bill was over four dollars.

Question: Did the author mean someone slid four dollars under the bill, or did the bill total more than four?

Here's a hint on how to avoid this ambiguous situation. Whenever you find yourself using the word "over" and you really meant "more than," please, for my sake, remove "over" and insert "more than" in its place. It will clean up your meaning and will make me feel much betterer about the situation.

This is Gooseberry keeping things real and signing off. Over.