Elephant & Wheelbarrow, 21 April 2011
I had been a bit anal over a spelling mistake in an email at work that day. Normally I wouldn't have done anything other than 'tut' loudly to myself, but this was Victoria, and she's English. If we of all people don't protect the language, who will? Her crime was to spell the word heros without an 'e.' She laughed when I pointed out the error in the nicest way possible. Laughing at me I hasten to add.Later that night we were at the Comedy Festival watching a show about a guy who finds himself perpetually single because he has a habit of correcting his girlfriends grammar. I must re-think my approach to email spelling or I may find myself colleague-less.
Yes, I am big on spelling, writing complete sentences where possible, and the correct use of grammar. (Although on spell check I realised I just misspelt grammar.) So this was clearly the comedy show for me - an hour's worth of material on why Mr Butler broke up with girlfriends due to their inappropriate use of apostrophes on sausage roll's (sic) amongst other things and a Chinese girlfriend who got the boot primarily since she was simply 'more better' than him at a host of things. Apart from grammar. Would they have got the boot if they had been drop dead gorgeous I wonder. |
| The Classic Pub Comedy Venue. |
A themed comedy show about grammar? Yes it worked. Mainly due to Mark's deadpan delivery and ability to strike a chord with an enthusiastic audience. However, he did almost lose them though with a joke about 'fanny spit', myself included. Those are two words which should never be combined.
Thankfully, he managed to win back the largely 30 something crowd with a piece about Gen Y and their inability to say anything without laughing out loud. I could rant for pages about Generation Y and their the inability to communicate directly with any fellow human being. Especially when you're their boss. But it's their creation of a whole new language based on TLA's (three letter acronyms, lol) that really winds me up. Thank god I am not alone.
I thought I was the only obnoxious git who drove other people crazy correcting their grammar and spelling (something I take great pleasure in since I've been in the USA. Yes I put all the "u's" back into words and insist on "ph" and "s" where the americans use "f" and "z"). This insistence is even worse when you consider I'm a Geordie so when I was growing up Grammar was married to me Grandad!!
ReplyDeleteMy biggest annoyance is in the spoken word!! Positive inflections at the end of a sentence when someone isnt actually asking a question, and using "right" at the end of a statement drive me nuts !!! The use of "like" 32 times in a sentence drives me to the kind of violence you only used to see on a Saturday afternoon at Buckley Wells!!
Just dont get me started on the whole "disrespect" can of worms!