Best Book Cover Award

[Kellemora]

Now if only I knew a little bit about grammar I might do a wee bit better, hi hi...

[Icey]

Well put it this way Gary, you've managed so far, right? Everyone on here understands you, and so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[Kellemora]

I'm glad the folks here understand my babbling Icey.

However, over on another board, the Grammar Nazi's have held me captive in a corner ever since I joined, hi hi...

[Icey]

We have a simple saying over here, which's not meant as anything other than a stronger version of "too bad!"; bugger them!

That's NOT meant to be taken in a literal sense, but you get this sort of thing all the time when you go online. I've done it myself with Tomsk, and vice versa, but it's all meant in jest with us Brits. What ISN'T so good, is when the spelling police come out in force and seem to delight in pointing out spelling or grammatical faux pas. Some're even derisory with their comments, and although it'd matter when getting a novel into print, I'm sure that enough editing's done beforehand to erase any boo-boos.

I had the sobering job of telling a rude and ignorant woman that when my youngest son won a prize for his first essay at school, and she sniggered to someone else that it was "riddled with spelling mistakes", that in fact, there were just 5 within a whole paragraph, and that my autistic son'd struggled for about an hour to compose it. This was a huge feat for him at the time, but
he won the prize for his effort and content, which was well deserved.

In my humble opinion, when writing to friends and those you know well, a few literary contradictions don't mean a thing. We just read through any errors and that's the end of it. Some poor souls can't even speak, let alone read or write, so don't feel bad about anything Gary. Some of the things you post are hugely informative, interesting and amazing. Who gives a fig about an extra/missing letter or two, and so long as it's "nearly there" - I don't think anyone minds very much anyway.

[Kellemora]

I know exactly what you mean Icey!

I like to have phun with words, when I'm myself, purposely misspelling something to make it phunnier.
I figured if I get More Gooder at it, some day I will be considered the Most Betterest.

If I tried doing that while making comments on a forum under my pen name, the Grammar Nazi's would draw and quarter me on the spot. Heck, even using the words That, or Nice, or Very, will get me hung from the gallows.
As the Real Estate salesmen claim, Location, Location, Location, makes all the difference in the world (in how much they can gouge the buyer in excess profits).

[Icey]

LOL. Hi Gary.

I'm sure you meant "gooderer" instead of more gooder. ROFL! I'm sure you're "bestest" at playing with words already! It's quite fun isn't it (oops - phun, sorry)?

Some deliberate mistakes and twisting of words can be very good, though. I don't know if you saw it a few months ago, but Tomsk put that something was "irrelephant". I howled at that one, and used it when writing to a friend, adding that something was a "mammoth tusk", instead of task. She, in turn, liked it and used them both to someone else. What comes around goes around, and it's all a bit of fun, but obviously, within a serious working environment, none of that'd do unless the writer was quoting dialogue for some reason., or writing a book on word play.

[Kellemora]

I was working with this new pre-Editor at work, and I hate to say this, but despite my poor grammar, it was much better than his. I was also not the only one having trouble with him.

We had a bulletin board we called the Koffee Klatch Room, where a couple of other ghostwriters already made comments about this new pre-editor and his mistakes. Two said things much worse than I did about him, one called him a nasty monster with a pointed head, but the point was broke off.

My comment was so light, I didn't even think anyone would notice. All I said was "I got stuck with the Idiotor myself this morning." Both he and my second higher up boss saw it, and I received a reprimand, which is not good.
About a week and a half later, I received another message in a reprimand folder, and thought to myself; what did I do now? When I opened it, it was a reversal of my reprimand, so my slate was clear once again, plus a memo which read "The Idiotor is no longer in our employ." I about died when the second higher up big boss used the same word I did. Which I did learn later was ONLY in the message he placed in my folder. In everyone else's folder he used 'pre-editor.'

Although I personally never filed a complaint over an employee, apparently they received over 100 complaints about the new pre-editor. I'm sorta glad I didn't complain, because not to long I found myself stuck in the position as a pre-editor, and everyone knows, i don't know grammar from grandma. Thankfully, the editing I did was not necessarily grammar related, whew!

[Icey]

Some completely illiterate folk hold down very good jobs Gary, and you don't fall into that category at all. How and where words're used depend on the situation/circumstances, and I'd never think anything nasty about people who have genuine difficulties with English.

Just as it's perhaps not your forté, my maths was so bad at school that I used to get told off all the time. That just made things worse. I was even tutored privately, to try and bring me up to scratch. Nah, complete failure, and yet! When my son had to have a year off school and I home-taught him, all those years of dithering over decimals, fractions, problems and working out areas seemed to melt away. On testing, it was found that I could manage quite OK up to year 10 work and beyond, so that allowed me to teach my son up to the standard he'd reached.

I still don't like figure work, but my determination was for a purpose, and I did it. Now I don't have to do that sort of thing any more, so I can flop back into my useless mode and not give a damn! : )

You carry on as you are doing, Gary. You're managing, and that's the main thing. You've managed very well, too!

[Kellemora]

I was not the best at math either Icey, but in later years, all the formulas I used in my contracting work were easier to learn. When I used them every day they were easy to do, but now, I couldn't work a single one and get the same answer twice, hi hi...

[Icey]

LOL! Forget it. I'm sure that you don't need all those calculations and formulas now anyway. I think you do just fine.

[Kellemora]

I don't need to know anything anymore, I has a computin' contraption, and a wife! ;-)

[Icey]

Oh LOOOOOOOL!!!!!! Like your sense of humour!