Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Smoking Mirrors . . .


If you’ve ever visited the message boards or chat rooms of nonwriters, you’ve probably noticed the grammatical/orthographical equivalent of “tin ear.” I offer the following examples Spell Check will never find

o   “We got the game on Paper view.”
o   “Watching it was torcher.”
o   “They have a huge steak in this.”
o   “It’s truely mind bottling.” [A Mensa cocktail for sure.]

Sometimes the error makes as much sense as the correct original: “a mute point,” “an escape goat.”

I hope it never seizes to amaze you what I come up with on my blog. Don’t take it for granite. And please don’t think it’s smoking mirrors; I work hard at it.

If it seems snotty to laugh at other people’s errors, I must plead that it’s my business as writer/editor to correct em as I see em.

Besides, every third millennium or so, I make a misteak too.

8 comments:

  1. I am giggling so much right now. :)

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  2. I would guess that many of these "misteaks" are committed by young people who don't read much. They hear things wrong and this is what we get. If they read, they would actually see the correct usage. By the way, one of my favorites in "pre-madonna."

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I agree, Chief. And thank you for the material. I didn't give you credit as I should have. Sorry.

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  3. Oh, I so feel a rant coming on.

    I'm sorry, but I think the large-scale illiteracy today is closely tied to teachers allowing "creative spelling" in classrooms starting about 30 years ago. The message was sent that it doesn't matter how you spell as long as people can figure out what you mean. And oh how the message was received.

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  4. So funny. One of my favorite lines on the TV show FRIENDS is when Joey called something a "moo point."

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  5. Oh, too funny, Sara. Thanks for the chuckle =)

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  6. I didn't think you were being snotty. You were being observant ;)

    Similar to Leslie this post also made me think of Joey's "moo point" on FRIENDS. You know? A cow's opinion!

    Thank you for the amusing post.

    Please also visit me at my blog:
    Www.anythingimagined.blogspot.com

    I post about my art and writing as well as things or people that inspire me.

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