No, I Do Not Know

Pity the poor thought pause.  This bit of silence used to occupy the space between words as the speaker collected her thoughts before moving on.  The thought pause was complimentary to good grammar, often emphasizing the period at the end of a complete sentence.  In today's colloquial speech the thought pause has been replaced by the meaningless phrase, "you know".  Some speakers will insert multiple "you know's" before half a thought is completed.  This way of speaking has spread throughout the broadcast world.  When turning away from the telepromped script for an ad libbed thought even the best news anchors resort to "you know".  Consider the thought pause.  Accept its calming influence on conversation.  Embrace a little silence between thoughts.