My son, a resident of Copenhagen, Denmark, for several years, often finds time to skim American-English newspapers, excerpts of which he forwards to me and to Facebook friends on this side of the Atlantic.

Has Adam picked up an affliction from his dad? I thought I was the only one in the family to sit mesmerized after observing something that’s strangely worded.

One of the most common misuses of the language — and the one Adam chose to comment on — deals with the misuse of the words “literally” and “figuratively.” The two are often confused. As are many people.

My son has — literally — picked up some of his dad’s hyper-attentiveness to the language and its misuses. In a post this week, Stan forwarded a mug shot of some movie star with a caption that reads, “Top 10 actresses that will literally take your breath away.”

My son’s response: “Really? Are they going to sneak into my bedroom and smother me with a pillow? Are they going to waterboard me? How are they — literally — going to take my breath away?”

I don’t think my son has much cause to worry; whoever wrote that bit about breathlessness obviously meant it in the figurative sense. The trouble is that we don’t hear “figurative” very often, even when we mean it. We say “literally” instead.

People use expressions all the time that they literally don’t mean. If a person exclaims she’s “been waiting outside for hours and froze to death,” we take it as a hyperbole, a gross exaggeration. Otherwise, if she had indeed frozen to death, she probably wouldn’t have that much to say.

It’s true that we also use expressions for effect. When we say, “I flew over here the minute I got the news,” we’re probably not talking about a quick plane trip, but more likely a drive across town or a sprint down the hall.

The literal meaning is what the word connotes. If we’re able to say, “I froze to death,” we’re speaking figuratively in the sense of “I was so cold I almost froze to death. But literally? Not so.

What about other uses of “literally”? Suppose a theater critic says Katherine Zeta Jones “literally stole the show”? The writer might be using “literally” to exaggerate Jones’s theatrics and not that she needs to be arrested and jailed for theft.

• • •

“And as for you, Dad, you should have caught that ball.” Thus spoke yet another son, Ben, years ago when I let a fly ball get past me during a Thanksgiving softball game in a field near our house.

Yes, I should have caught that ball, but I was distracted, too pre-occupied by Ben’s way of expressing my shirked duties. I should have caught that ball, I confess, but what did my youngest son mean by that “and as for you” business?

It hadn’t occurred to me that “and as for you” automatically implies that Ben scolded someone else before scolding me. Assume Ben told yet another son, Diego, that his pitching was wild. Diego then hangs his head, mopes a bit and tries to get the ball over the plate with the speed and precision of Tom Seaver. Only after that may Ben use the “and as for you” phrase. Doesn’t “and as for you” mean that he’s already bawled out at least one person, and the second (or third or millionth) would be me (or, as my English teacher would say, “would be I”?

My feeling is that “and as for you” means someone next in line is going to receive a dressing down. But Ben began with me, not having scolded anyone before me. And that’s why I needed to write this long treatise on the use of language.

And as for you, readers, beware of threats that begin with “and as for you.”

• • •

How difficult is it to provide basics like hot and cold running water? Many people who attended the East-West game last week at Marr Gym discovered there was no running water for hand washing in at least one of the men’s restrooms. It’s a bit messy — not to mention unsanitary — to need to use the drinking fountain outside the restroom for hand washing.

It was a huge basketball game, not a measly intramural scrimmage we’re discussing. Let’s keep things in such large facilities in working order, especially when the gymnasium is packed.

• • •

It took two people to replace her. I refer to Lupita Gonzales, who has written roughly 70 Senior Profiles that have appeared on the last Friday of each month. They feature individuals and sometimes couples who make a difference in San Miguel and Mora Counties.

The search for people of interest has taken us (I go along as the photographer) to Wagon Mound, Mora, Mineral Hill and various other far-flung places in the Optic’s circulation area. As a native of Gallup, N.M., Lupita at first hesitated to write Senior Profile because of not knowing too many people in this area.

That soon changed, and now she’s much better known in this community.

Beth Urech, a writer and speaker who claims Las Vegas and Chicago as her places of residence, has taken over Senior Profile, and if anything, Beth is, well — prolific and extremely capable. Readers likely have already read some of her submissions.

Local resident Susan Tsyitee has accepted the Optic’s invitation to serve on the paper’s editorial board, the position held by Lupita. The group, which consists of three Optic staffers, editor and publisher Martin Salazar, circulation and advertising coordinator Cynthia Fitch and me, and two community members, Joseph McCaffrey and Susan Tsyitee, meets weekly to discuss the issues of the day.

We welcome Beth and Susan to their respective roles and thank Lupita for her dedication to writing Senior Profile for upwards of 75 installments.