Present, Tense, Continuous

This may come as a surprise to some, but continued mangling of the English language annoys me - even more so when I do it myself. One such example is the over-use of the present continuous when it is more than sufficient to use the present tense alone. This riles me. This makes me cringe. This, in fact, makes me tense.
I do not like it; I am definitely not “loving it” - which always implies to me some sort of lewd encounter with a hamburger reminiscent of a particular adolescent movie (series) I’ve never seen which mentions a pie. But I digress.

The present continuous should be used to show, as the name implies, something occurring now & ongoing. It is far more descriptive than the present tense, which tends to the factual.

Take, for example “She is a cow” versus “She is being a cow”. The former leaves no room for error of meaning (regardless of the metaphor’s appropriateness), whereas the latter excuses ‘her’ actions as being temporary, perhaps even justified, in a poetic attempt to sympathise either with ‘her’ or else cows (by suggesting that her inclusion in the species will have no long term effect on their social standing). Admittedly, D D Bourland would complain bitterly that all such use of metaphor breaks the existentialism of “to be”, & is therefore prone to inaccuracy in most cases, but I think that the directness of the present tense has become an under-rated conveyor of information & meaning.

Beyond clarity, there is simplicity. Rather than saying “I am looking forward to today’s post”, simply “I look forward …” is not a short-hand that saves two syllables, but removes “to be” entirely! Before the introduction of the present indicative (“am”), back in the pirate era of “I be glad to have a parrot for company”, this would have provided significant clarity. A pirate might also need to be standing on the bow to say “I am looking forward …”.

I could go on & on like this all day, but I fear I might end up in one of those pirate jokes that end in “Arr”.