Get Your Dreams Interrupted

My English major buddies or left-brained friends will probably enjoy what I’m about to say. The rest of you might read with perplexity, wondering, ‘What is the big deal?” The subject: Spelling and Proofreading! I can hear some of you groan already.

Many years ago, I worked my way through college editing and proofreading…for English professors. I was trained to spot and correct grammatical errors with the fluent red ink pen, much to students’ dismay. Hence, my friends would never let me read anything they wrote…for fear I would find a mistake and call forth the Spelling Nazis.

Over the years I have mostly learned to silence my criticism and take it all in stride, because let’s face it—there are a lot of poor spellers out there, and it does little good to complain! I confess, though, that I am a closet punctuation perfectionist.

Even with the famous computer spell check, I’ve noticed that the ones who don’t spell well, don’t care and therefore, they refuse to use this fabulous tool.

We can get piqued by errors, or sometimes use them for entertainment, as long as our reputation isn’t being tarnished by association. We must have grace for our linguistically-lacking loafers.

But, I do save some of the ‘gems’ and pull them out once in a while for a good laugh.

I still remember with amazement the college freshman whose major semester paper was supposed to be about Don Quixote. Obviously this person never even cracked the book, because her whole paper centered in on someone named ‘Donkey Hotee’.

Today I received an email from someone who asked for support because they are going through a ‘lot of testing and trails.’  I’m praying for their journey!

An email writer recently lamented the years in her life eaten away by ‘locus’. Ouch! Could she be more ‘specific’?

Then, there is my good friend who loves me but isn’t sure about the validity of the whole dream interpretation thing that I love and do full time. She meant well, I think. She sent out a mass email to friends, telling them that “Merry does Dream Interruption” for anyone who might be interested.

I’ve only had a few takers.

What about you? What are some of the funniest spelling bloopers you’ve experienced?

Or, are you one of THOSE people who doesn’t use spell check and are a source of frowns, raised eyebrows, or . . . snuffled snickers and sarcastic blogs?