Attack of the grammar weenie
Mr Lileks, I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment expressed in the opening sentence of today's Bleat--

When you dine out with human beings less than 1000 days old, you have to pick your spots carefully.

(In fact, my son is just past 4000 days old, and we still have to choose restaurants carefully. Something to look forward to.)

--but while I normally marvel at your command of the language, this morning your fingernails screech on my metaphorical chalkboard. You have less of things you measure, but fewer of things you count. The beloved, world-famous Gnat is fewer than 1000 days old, not less. She has less age, but fewer years; Less experience, but fewer experiences.

I can't explain why this bothers me. There is a commercial in (sadly) frequent rotation on the radio here, that proclaims that a certain brand of copier has "less moving parts", and I cannot prevent myself from responding, "fewer moving parts". "Less moving parts" makes no sense, unless the parts are smaller. Not fewer, but smaller -- having less size.

In fact, come to think of it, I can't recall the last time I heard anyone use the word "fewer" about anything. Perhaps it is obsolete. Never mind.

I also have an unfortunate reaction to the common usage of "literally" as an intensifier. If I am "literally" beside myself, it does not mean that I am more upset than if I were "merely" beside myself: It means that there are two of me. Proclaiming an overused metaphor to be "literally" true is distracting at best, grotesque at worst, and incorrect in any case. Literally.

And then there's "hopefully", but I can't bring myself to get too upset about that one anymore. It should modify a verb, with the meaning of performing an act in a hopeful manner. It is more commonly used as a sentence modifier, indicating that the speaker hopes that the events spoken of come to pass. As such, it is the most insidious form of bias, since it so often passes by unnoticed. If you mean "I hope", say "I hope". If you don't mean "I hope", be extremely wary of "hopefully".

No reporter should ever use the word in straight news.

LATER: I think I probably overreacted. Although I do believe that "less" is horribly overused at the expense of "fewer", this probably wasn't the best example I could have picked.