NEW YORK – A New York City bar has had it with the oft-misused word "literally."
Signs both on the outside and inside of Continental at Third Avenue in Saint Marks Place read:
“Sorry, but if you say the word ‘literally’ inside Continental, you have five minutes to finish your drink and then you must leave.
If you actually start a sentence with ‘literally' you must leave immediately.”
Wall Street Journal reporter and Continental customer Lillian Rizzo told WPIX, “I am pretty sure every time I use it, it is edited out of my copy, literally.”
“I was a little worried because it happens in my speech all the time," said Michael Wursthorn. "I’ve said ‘literally’ twice and so far they haven’t thrown me out.”
Continental, a decades-old neighborhood dive and former music venue, is filled with lots of curmudgeonly signs, including, "no kardashianism," "no tap water because we’re running out of plastic cups," "this is not a public place so we can throw anyone out" and "the customer is always wrong."
The owner, Trigger Smith, is on a two-week meditation and silence retreat but was able to text WPIX a comment:
“My ban is tongue in cheek. It’s fake news.
I’m just trying to shake things up a little and possibly enlighten people to be a little more respectful of the English language.
We are not Literally throwing people out. Yet! :)”
Continental is set to close for good on July 1 and that’s making lots of customers very sad, quite literally.
