[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Laziness is a disease that will not be cured by well-meaning threads such as this. Nice try though.

Too true, réd. I'm not trying to improve the situation, though; I'm here because I like to complain. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

And I suppose you have never heard of that ancient relic, a book called Dictionary

I'd just to point out how cheaply those can be picked up: I bought a 1954 copy of the Concise Oxford (let's face it: have any really useful words been added to the language since then?) for about 50p (around 80 cents) at a charity book sale just last week. I also managed to get a copy of Roget's Thesaurus, which is useful for those who have progressed beyond elementary spelling, and have reached the giddy heights of prose style. This volume was acquired for the princely sum of £1.

And Maril, you could always rename
your thread, "The Agony and The Ecstasy ..." and you might catch a different crowd.

Well, it would attract those who enjoyed that biographical novel about Michaelangelo; but I doubt that they have any trouble with their English. Any hormonally overloaded and gramatically challenged fans of Renaissance art would, however, find themselves suitably chastised.

What really depresses me about the entire spelling issue is that the worst offenders are not those for whom English is a second, third or even fourth language, but native speakers. I find it more than a little embarrassing, not to mention surreal, when an English Downer proves to be worse at speaking English than, for example, a German or a Swede. Have these would-be dyslexics no shame?

Since I'm now progressing into a full-fledged rant I'd also like to back Estelyn up in her attack on the "I'm tired" cop-out. In the past I've worked on a serious post for up to an hour, realised that it was going nowhere and abandoned it. Better to waste my time, I reason, than to waste everybody's. When through oversight I do post some utter drivel and someone knocks holes in it, I acknowledge my sloppy research, questionable premise or rambling argument or concede the point quietly. What difference does it make that someone was tired? Does that fact correct their spelling? Does it magically make their argument less rambling or specious? None of us are going to hold one weak submission against them if it's clearly an aberration, and by the same token no little apologies inside the posts will prevent people from resenting the consistent and thoughtless publication of dross.

My suggested punishmnent for such craven idleness is that the perpetrator be made to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring; possibly being required to make a nice two-level shrubbery as well.