The thing is, is.....

[Kikithecat]

I can stay silent no longer, it has to be outed!

Everywhere I am jearing people say "the thing is, is that blah blah blah...". Why the second 'is'? It is keeping me awake at night squirmimg.

It has even worked its way into the past tense as in "the reason being, was that....."

Aaaaaaarg!!!

I experience a similar thing, I work mostly on the phone and the majority of calls start with "what it is, right..."