Dear Geist,

Is anyone but me sick to death of “impossibly,” the new (sort of) favourite adverb in contemporary fiction? Her hair was impossibly red, the sand was impossibly hot, they deked into the impossibly clean washroom . . . Not only is it nonsense, it's already overdone! OK, just had to get that off my impossibly hairy chest.

—Joe Tilkallen, Honolulu HI

Dear Joe,

We're impossibly grateful to you for bringing this matter to the attention of Advice for the Lit-Lorn readers. We wouldn't necessarily say no to a good piece of writing that contained impossibly, but it makes us wince every time.

—The Editors