To be perfectly frank

I wonder whether anyone else has noticed an increase in this kind of phrase, or if it's just me. It seems to me that in common conversation, more and more, you hear people say something like "I'm going to be perfectly honest with you," or "to be perfectly frank," or shorter forms like "honestly" or "truthfully." Partly this is a signal that they are going to say something they fear you may not like, but partly it's a recognition of how often we lie, or use bullshit on each other. I'm hearing this phrase more and more, and wonder if it's an increase in frequency or if I'm just sensitized.

catching up

I haven't posted anything here for three weeks, which in blog years is very long. (The ratio of dog years to human years is 1:7; we need a study about the equivalent to human time in blog years.) Since my last post, Terri Schiavo has had her meteoric rise and fall, in terms of celebrity--too bad she didn't know it--the Pope has died, and Tom DeLay seems to be in the process of being shoved out the door.

FYI, Terri Schiavo's blogseems to have acquired its last entry now.

Mostly I wanted to test Blogger out, as I'm hearing that there have been problems . . .