Argh!  I know that they mean no harm.  I’m talking about all those well-wishers and normal folks out there, doing what they can to give some supplicant succor in these, the hardest of times since the Great Depression, by closing their letters and emails with “Best.”  It’s just the nice thing to do.  “Aw,” they seem to say, “things will get better.  Here’s a little ‘Best’ comin’ your way!”  And yet there’s something about it that rankles my sensibilities.  I mean, yes, it’s a better way to wrap things up than “Yours <anything>,” “Warm <whatever>,” or “With <feeling>,” especially among those who hardly know each other, and it somehow bridges the gap between the vapid safety of “Sincerely” and the comic devotion of, say, “Forever Yours.”

But it also, somehow, sounds a little dismissive, no?  Continue reading “Why “Best” is the worst closing ever…” →