Like used as a conjunction

Not acceptable with me either, but then this is Pedants' Corner.

Hello jane what time is it with you? How many hours behind? I'm on a 'can't sleep' night, DH rang up just after I fell asleep at a sensible time, and now can't. Ho hum.

Hello Icy, it's 9.50pm here in N Carolina - I think. We know the clocks go back here too, but we're not sure when , but it seems strangely unimportant.

I probably won't sleep either, DD2 and SiL are joining us on the boat tomorrow and I'm all excited. Our trip is fun, and we get to see DS and family here in the US, but I miss the DDs too, DD2 and SiL live near us so we see them quite often.

Have a wonderful family time. Are you on the U.S. Intracoastal Waterway doing the Birginia to Florida route like Terry Darlington? Where can I find your blog?

I've got used to it. A case of having to as Minibags peppers her speech with 'like'. It's certainly preferable (as in slightly less irritating) to the "y'know" that a Californian friend of ours put between every few words for no other reason, as far as I could tell, than that it was a common speech habit in California.

Like the "er..." that some people use here.

I find the example of Kate Atkinson's writing that janea gives perfectly usual and acceptable. At least she uses it as a useful part of the sentence rather than just a meaningless interjection. And it's obvious what it means even if one does have a different, preferred way of saying the same thing.

I think that particular use has been very common for quite a while, jane. I guess you weren't looking

This is not like using the word as a conjunction but doesn't it set your teeth on edge when your hear something along the lines of," so I was like...duh and he was like ....whatever" ? It absolutely brings our my inner Dowager Magge Smith

"OUT"

I think you're right Bags but it just looks so ugly somehow and I would never use it myself.
Yes, Soutra, teeth on edge describes it very well.
I wonder if pedants have a higher incidence of dental attrition than non-pedants. We must go round with our jaws almost permanently fixed together, grinding away at what's left of our enamel

"Like there's no tomorrow" has been around for quite a while, as you say, and I think it would sound far too prissy to say "as if there's no tomorrow" in that context.

And shouldn't it be 'as if there were no tomorrow' anyway? (To be even more pedantic! )

I try not to let it get in the way of a good story

Yes, that was an example off the top of my head, not a quote from the book, not really a good one.
Sorry fellow pedants

soutra, your example sentence made me LOL

Even if something has been around so much that it is now 'normal', it doesn't stop it itching. There are a number of now-commonplace phrases that were drummed into me as being WRONG when I was a child. They are impossible for me to ignore and they jump off the page, making me lose my place.

Hello Icy, only just seen your post at 8.35
Yes, we're doing the Intracoastal Waterway like Terry & Monica - Terry's book Narrow Dog to Indian River was what set MrA off in the first place!
We're going north though, and then we're carrying on and doing the Great Loop, which at present rate of progress will occupy us for the next few years, as we're doing 3 months at a time and then having a few months at home.

My blog is www.talesfromtheamericanwaterways.com

That sounds wonderful. Off to check out your blog now ......