As long as we are being peripheral: do you notice people writing "couple" in place of "couple of"? That is, you read "a couple times," "a couple guys," or as I read in a comic strip the other day, "You are a couple candies short of a pinata."
Start looking and it's all over the place, but it seems new. Is there a history to this? Is it some New Yorkism, like "standing on line"?
