awfully

“Well, thanks very much! You’re awfully kind, Lady C,” he said, and curtsied as daintily as he could.

“Still, he took the time to send them. And while imprisoned by pirates, too! That’s awfully romantic, don’t you think? Do you like him, too?”

“Feathered or not, the ostrich is nature’s perfect racing machine. The meat is awfully tasty, too.”

But if we adjust the details a bit, that sounds awfully close to Elon Musk’s lazy storybook fantasies about charming hobbit villages protected by “hard men.”

This week two senior leaders of the British broadcaster stepped down over the actions described above and a question naturally occurs: Isn’t this pattern getting awfully old?