I’ve read at least five things in the past three days where the writer/blogger/emcee/whatever the hell used the construction, “Joe Blow sat down to talk with us/take a test/eat dinner.”

Google gave me 3,950,000 hits when I searched the phrase “sat down to talk with us.” Really, people?

As opposed to what? Who comes in and conducts an interview standing up? Or maybe the person in question just got out of traction, so they’re very excited to be able to sit?

Just stop it.  “Joe Blow talked to us. Jane Doe took a test.”  Move on.