LANGUAGE: The 'so' epidemic

As a retired college English instructor, I enjoyed Sholeh Patrick’s column about idioms. The only one I hadn’t seen was “rye smile.”

A minor but, to me, telling change in language use is that when someone replies to a question or is in a TV interview, now they usually preface their remarks with “So…” I always thought “so” meant “therefore” and would be incorrect in starting a new subject. I can remember first hearing this practice a few years ago, and spreading rapidly through TV to casual conversations.

Am I missing something?

MIRIAM OWENS

Coeur d’Alene