LANGUAGE CORNER
That Ole Devil "Like"
No, not the one in "John likes Mary." And not the weird but widespread affliction of such expressions as "It's, like, cool"; that's not worth talking about. Our topic is the "like" that compares things. This one, by continuing consensus, was wrong:
" . . . like Edwards and his Jets did . . ."
"Like" means "similar to," which obviously wouldn't work in the fragment above. The rule of thumb: Don't use "like" if what follows is a noun (including a name) or pronoun that is the subject of its own verb. So it should be "as Edwards and his Jets did" or — it often sounds more natural — "the way" they did. In speech, the form "like they did" is virtually universal. For even moderately formal writing, our rule of thumb remains the safest bet. At least for now.
Confusion seems to arise about "like," though. Consider " . . . the current wave of terror, as the ones before it, represents . . . ." Someone — writer or editor — was afraid of "like." But the phrase between commas has no verb of its own; "wave," despite the parenthetical interruption, is the subject of the verb "represents." "Like the ones before it" was the only way to go.
