Max's Miscellaneous Musings

Lately, the following things have been disproportionately pissing me off:

Loose != Lose. Biggest Loser Club members, I'm looking at you! It's written on every single fucking page in a huge banner, and you STILL get it wrong! You are not big loosers. You are big losers. Please don't make me call you Losers with a capital L.

Alot (not even a word!) != A lot. Most common usage: "Over the years, I've gained alot of weight". No you bloody haven't. Perhaps you should've spent some of those years looking in a dictionary.

There != Their != They're. Do we really need to go over this again? Let me use all these words in a phrase: "Look! Over there! They're playing with their dog!".

Your != You're. Contractions seem to be a challenge for people. "You're a loser. You really need to work on your spelling."

Weather != Whether. Actually, this reminds me of a Simpsons episode, in which Lisa attends a spelling bee competition. The whole thing is rigged, and some poor kid is made to spell "weather/whether". When he can't discern which "weather/whether" he needs to spell, he asks the MC to use it in a sentence. The sentence? "I don't know whether the weather will improve.". Poor kid never had a chance.

Wander != Wonder. Example phrases include: "I wonder if people will ever learn how to spell?", followed closely by "He wandered over a cliff, falling a thousand feet into a fiery pit, wherein, during his death throes, he located a dictionary and finally learnt that he should have merely wondered what was at the bottom of the cliff."

Anything that has been pluralised though application of apostrophe s. Eg: Loser's.

Proof that I have finally become Old (with a capital O): Back in my day, schools actually taught kids how to spell. And it was drummed into us that it was important. We were graded on these things and some of us were even sent to remedial classes with teachers' aides who spent quality time helping us learn. We all knew the difference between "their/there/they're". Kids these days.....

[/end rant]