The Preponderance of "Uh"

Taking a break from Sunday chores I get the opportunity to view the Sunday talk shows. I am amazed at the use of the word "uh" by so many. From Prague, my old home away from home, having spent years there, I see a top Administration official speaking and every other word is "uh".

I am reminded of my third year Latin and the oration of Cicero against Cataline:

"Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata jactabit audacia?"

Not a single "uh"! Young Romans as well as Greeks all studied rhetoric, the process of speaking publicly. It was and is still important. The words of Cicero, Seneca, and many others go down in time as strongly as they were over two thousand years ago. They were spoken words, they were given without teleprompters and words composed by the speaker, who perforce of their own training in rhetoric could place two words together without as single "uh".

Just listen to the melody of Cicero, it effuses with his contempt for Cataline. Where is that sense of outrage in the rhetoric of today? Perhaps instead of all of the culturally uplifting courses we could reintroduce rhetoric again, of course this is after grammar which also seems to be a vanishing art.

And yes, as best as I remember, I never heard an "uh" in Czech, Greek, Italian, Russian, French, Spanish, or even Polish!