This has been a real peeve to me too. My girlfriend and I had this conversation yesterday. She thinks that some of it has to do with kids doing all their homework on a computer and having spellcheck handle the spelling and grammar. Our friend's 11 year old daughter says that her history teacher tells her it's okay if there are misspellings in her text as long as she gets her point across! WHAT? That may be part of it, but what about all of my contemporaries whom are grammatically challenged? I am 37. I used to be a commercial and industrial plumber and pipefitter. I was booksmart, not jobsmart. When I was starting out, I found it interesting that the same guy that can manage a job with ten to fifty guys on it...the guy who can lead, coordinate, multitask, and solve very difficult problems on the job can't spell beyond the third grade level! They would ask me how to spell words when they are writing. Then call me a dumbshit when I'm working at the trade which was probably justified lol. Now I'm a residential contractor. Now I am the leader. But I can spell and compose my own documents, hehe. I don't know if poor spelling would statistically equal poor trading, though it may be the same as in the construction trades. Or not. My own personal opinion is that trading is for people whom are booksmart and streetsmart too. Not one or the other. Still, I find it troubling and embarrassing how widely accepted the symptoms of "idiocracy" are in our society. One thing that gets me occurs every few weeks, when the UFC holds an event: The announcer will say, "Two minutes remains...ten seconds remains..." Where is his boss??? Correct that idiot, he's representing a huge American organization! So many professional websites are full of typos...er...misspellings! AGH! Enough already I'm pissing myself off! Much needed thread!
TW, thank you for your thoughtful post, and especially for that real-life example. As for you, Infolode, do you know what the little bumpy secondary nipples around a woman's main nipple are for? They're Braille for "Suck here!"
"exhasberate" Shorthand, one presumes, for a tongue-lashing by one's ex. Probably best not to try to use a big word iff'n you cain't spell it.
My favorite commentary on the matter... From Astounding Science Fiction, Anthology 1946, by Dolton Edwards ...As a catalytic agent, we suggest a National Easy Language Week. Some spelling change would be announced, to be adopted in the coming year. All schoolchildren would be given a holiday, the lost time being the equivalent of that gained by the spelling short cut. In 1946 we could eliminate the soft c, substituting s. This would be selebrated in all sivic-minded sircles. In 1947, we could substitute k for the hard c, as both letters would be pronounsed identikally. So two years of this prosess would klarify konfusion for students, and already we would have eliminated one letter from the alphabet. By 1948 all skhool tshildren would be looking forward to the annual holiday, and, in a blaze of publisity, ph would be banned, henseforth to be written f. By 1949, publik interest in the fonetik alfabet would allow a more radikal step forward - eliminating al unesesary double leters, whitsh, although harmles have always ben a nuisanse. The advanse in 1950 would be to spel al difthongs fonetikaly. Tbough perhaps not imediately aparent, the saving in taime and efort wil be tremendous when we leiter elimineite the seilent e, meid posible bai the tsheinge. In 1959 we would urg a greit step forward. As it would hav ben for yers sins anywun had used the leter c, we could substitut it for th. It would be som taim befor peopl would becom akustomed to reading buks wic sutsh sentenses in cem as "Ceodor cought he had cre cousand cistles crust crough ce cik of his cumb!" So ce proses would go on, geting rid of y in 1952, alowing it to be reusd for sh from 1953. Kontinuing cis proses, we would eventuali hav a reali sensibli writen langug. In fakt, by 1975, wi ventyur to sei, cer wud bi no mor uv ces teribl trublsm difikultis, wic no tu leters usd to indikeit ce seim nois, and laikweis no tu noises riten wic ce seirn leter. Even Mr Yaw, wi beliv, wud be hapi in ce noleg cat his drims fainali keim tru.
noted another typo. I said russian team room. it is tea room. My fingers do not always type what I am thinking.