Two paragraphs lead off with the "Now, <statement>" construct:
"Now, our funding situation is that..."
"Now, we understand that..."
I'm starting to get sensitized to this construct. The 'now' is like an 'um' -- i.e., filler -- except, it's an 'um' that says, "I am about to say something authoritatively."
Obama uses it a lot, too.
I'm starting to flag it as sort of poser-ish.
The content of the article was super high quality, and outweighed this nit.
Obama uses it when speaking without a script, right? In that circumstance it's a kind of time-filler while he arranges his next sentence in his head -- he often uses a long, drawn-out 'Aaaaand' in the same way. At least it's better than 'uh,' which is what most people (including me) use.
"Now, that being said, it begs the question of <whatever>" -- the sentence was tongue-in-cheek. I was illustrating, in a mocking way, the style I don't like.
I agree that "prompts" sounds stilted, but are you seriously advocating using something that's incorrect -- "begs" -- instead of "raises" just because it's slightly shorter?
"Now, our funding situation is that..."
"Now, we understand that..."
I'm starting to get sensitized to this construct. The 'now' is like an 'um' -- i.e., filler -- except, it's an 'um' that says, "I am about to say something authoritatively."
Obama uses it a lot, too.
I'm starting to flag it as sort of poser-ish.
The content of the article was super high quality, and outweighed this nit.