Conversate and basically

[Duane Campbell]

In the Ashcroft hearings Judge White used the word "conversate" for
converse. I didn't think much about it -- a slip brought on by the
pressures of lights, cameras and obstreperous Senators. But since then I
have heard it twice more on C-SPAN call ins. (I don't have much of a
life.) Is this a mistake or growing usage?

I have also noticed an explosion of the use of the word "basically" as a
filler  I have always used it to mean that I am stripping a concept of
its nuances. Now it seems to be inserted in almost every proposition. Is
this an increased usage, or am I just getting ypersensitive to it?

D