Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

I overheard a woman talking on the cell phone, axing someone’s location.  At first, I thought she was ignorant, her question an abominable wrenching of the English Language.  Now I realize she was devolving the language to a simpler state, no doubt to economize on words and thereby save cell minutes.

She condensed an inquiry into an entire day’s events down to “Where You At?” followed by two modifiers for temporal variations: “Where You Bin?” and Where You Going?”

Thrifty.

Joe Doakes

The funny part of language is that it is the ultimate free market. Left to its own devices, it evolves, usually in ways that make sense for its consumers.

That doesn’t always mean good things, of course.