[mjohnson]

To the main topic - I think "like" is nearly unfixable. It's like (heh) breathing for so many.

I had a very annoying verbal habit of using "clearly", especially with some new engineers. One particularly aware victim started using with me in at least every other sentence. No other remarks - not even a smirk or a second glance to see if I noticed.

I noticed, and it hit hard! It had me fixed of that little issue in less than a month.

My particular hangup now is anyone responding to my side of a discussion with "Anyway, ..." I don't take it well and I've tried to give it back, as in the "clearly" example above, and typically they're so contextually deaf that it doesn't even register.