Verbal traffic controls

Disclosure: I am a confessed grammar scofflaw, which sometimes riles editors. In a feature article, I once used the phrase, "...it was her." The grammar checkers tried to pin me down and make me change it to "...it was she."

I wrote back, quoting chapter and verse in my defense. And I added: "Please don't make me sound like my 5th grade English teacher..... It's perfectly acceptable to say 'It was her.' Send the grammar police to me if they have complaints."

So, you can see I'm no purist. Still, after rereading an ambiguous sentence a few times, I did ask one of my favorite writers about his cavalier attitude to punctuation.

He replied:

When passing a punctuation stop sign or running a syntactical red light, I will flash my poetic license, which if it ever lapsed, I hereby declare renewed.

I answered him,

When it comes to verbal traffic controls, I keep one rule in mind:

WATCH FOR PEDESTRIANS

Pity the poor pedestrian readers. Make it safe and easy to keep reading to the next page, and the next, and the next.......

Like a subordinating conjunction

I just wrote a line using the phrase "like it was waiting for instructions..."

Are the grammar police going to put me up against the wall?

Grammar Girl says:

Whether you abide by this rule or not probably depends on how much of a grammar stickler you are.

On the other hand, she says

Even as like is becoming more entrenched in everyday use, professional grammarians are absolutely resolved that this is a trend worth fighting.

In desperation, I tried the great language libertarian, William Safire. He also confesses:

I have been breaking this "rule" frequently...

On the other hand, he concludes with a conditional...

Because like has been ripping through teenage lingo like a verbal virus — challenging even y’know — I will henceforth replace it with such as...

Sounds like Tevye, no?