Lumpy: Hell, that's how George spells it so, by-god, what's the problem? OK. Now who's dealing?

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

I just have to shake my head and sigh. Supposedly the folks that work for newspapers and television stations have at least a high school education. Not that you could tell by the way they spell common words though.

If the people that bring us our news can't be bothered to hit the spell check function on their computer or at least have a dictionary at hand for bothersome words, then what hope do we have that students will see any benefit in getting things right?

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"You can't fix stupid..." ~ Ron White"
"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

Perhaps the Strait-A student would be a good entrant in a geography bee.

Painful pun, Mark. (But delicious!)

Larry Van Guilder

It's funny. I've noticed here that posters who generally agree with our positions on the matter du jour, are forgiven little eccentricities when they rattle the keyboard. I, for one, just think,"Bless his/her heart, (s)he's in a hurry and we did at least get the gist of that statement."

Ah, but the trolls. I'm one of the worst to give them what for when they don't dot their T's and cross their I's.

And I freely admit that my grammar is at times similar to that of Dave Gardner who once said, "I know my grammar ain't too good, but it's communicable."

I don't see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing. I have a correspondent whose letters are always a refreshment to me, there is such a breezy unfettered originality about his orthography. He always spells Kow with a large K. Now that is just as good as to spell it with a small one. It is better. It gives the imagination a broader field, a wider scope. It suggests to the mind a grand, vague, impressive new kind of a cow. - Mark Twain in a speech at a spelling match, Hartford, Connecticut, May 12, 1875. Reported in the Hartford Courant, May 13, 1875

and this:

...simplified spelling is all right, but, like chastity, you can carry it too far. - Mark Twain - The Alphabet and Simplified Spelling speech, December 9, 1907

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