Despite having little to no free time today, I sacrificed the ten minutes I had planned on using to shave to drop some knowledge.
While it is easy to confuse the terms last and latest, there are variations between the two that lead to more adequate usage in the proper context. If you are referring to something with last, it should pertain to a final effort.
The last episode of Cheers made me cry. What the fuck is Norm going to do now?
According to that sentence, it is clear that the final episode of Cheers is the subject, as oppose to;
The latest episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians was the television equivalent of euthanasia; their last episode could not come soon enough.
See what I did there? O AN HE CRAFTY HUH. In this instance, latest refers to the most recent, not last episode.
Now, before you run-off sharing this precious nugget of information with your friends, remember, there are exceptions. Last, when used in the sense of latest, can be as impactful as an idiom and should be used only when there is no affordance for ambiguity.
Cubs catcher Soto just made up for an error in his last at bat by smoking a hanging slider from Ramirez over the fence for a 3-run home run and 13th inning walkoff win for the Cubbies.
Why the Cubs? Well, that actually just happened moments ago while I write this. Allow that to be today's sign of the impending apocalypse.
Thanks for reading.
Bon Voyage Glenn Beck, you ignorant prick.
UPDATE: Notice above, the 'word' impactful in bold. I feel like dying right now solely because I included that in a post. Impact is not a verb, thus impactful is not even close to a word. I hate my life. Sweet dreams.
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