[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

I saw something on TV last night about spelling. One comment really made me shake my head, that spelling is old fashioned and has been surpassed by technology. What the...?

Isn't it bad enough that we have a generation that can't add up, ask them to buy the milk (~$3) and bread (~$3) and they need a $20 just in case $10 isn't enough! And whoa if you give them a 5 and some gold. I am always amazed at the looks I get when I give a cash register attendent some notes and odd change for a purchase, and then even more amazement when they give me one note and a coin change.

I don't have a problem with people making the odd typo and letting it slip through a quick proof read, but some people just can't spell. I don't believe spelling can ever be "old fashioned", if you spell a word wrong and the person at the other end can't spell either and spells the word differently, how do you know they "heard" what you "said"! Imagine signing a legal agreement that is full of typos, or interpreting a will.... I know there a number of people even on this forum who's spelling is atrocious and they make me shake my head at time, or a bit of a giggle.

Even the standards of plain English grammar are becoming almost non existent. My pet peeve is "then" and "than"....both words mean completely different things people!, their similar spelling is the ONLY thing they have in common. "Then" is a temporaral reference, "I will do this THEN I will do that". "Than" is a comparative reference, "this is bigger THAN that". "This is bigger then that"....then what?...."This is bigger then...I will go home?" To and too is the other pair. "I go TO work with you TOO (also)" or "These pants are TOO (excessively) big for me".

I think they should spend at least some part of education teaching the things that people just have to KNOW, you can find out what 1345*3453 is, but you should know 6 * 5 = 30, and having commited this to memory you can easily find out what 5 * 6 is.

Well, enough of a rave...time to get back to werk!