(And a kitten dies every time someone uses “there” for “their.”)
“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.” ~A.A. Milne
“A synonym is a word you use when you can’t spell the other one.” ~Baltasar Gracián
“The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to questions of grammar.” ~Michel de Montaigne
“And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before–and thus was the Empire forged.” ~Douglas Adams
“This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.” ~Winston S. Churchill
“Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean ‘More people died,’ don’t say, ‘Mortality rose.’” ~C.S. Lewis
“The past is always tense, the future perfect.” ~Zadie Smith
“’Punctuation is the only thing that separates us from the lower animals!’ I said, sarcasm phaser set on stun. ‘Good point,’ she replied. ‘My dog still can’t use a semi-colon.’” Tutoring the Tutor
I think I may have killed a few puppies 🙁
Oh, my dog!
I love the last quote! So hilarious. I’m sure my Labradoodle couldn’t care less about semi-colons. I hate to admit it, but I’m one of those crazy people who love grammar. I took a college grammar class just for fun even though I didn’t need the credits. Suffice to say, I gloried in diagramming sentences. :-\ Neverthless, I still get stuff wrong–mostly when I am tired or in a hurry. It takes time to edit one’s work. Love this post. You write such variety and you make it all interesting.
I always had a love-hate relationship with grammar, but tutoring pushed me into the preachy pedagogue camp. Thanks, Lynn!
Yes, yes, and yes!
Lol. I’d like to add one…
“I hesitate to call myself writer (at least until I’m certain when to use a comma, a semi-colon; or an em—dash)” ~ Edward Sosa
It never hurts to learn to laugh at ourselves. 🤓
Haha!!! That’s hilarious!!! Most of all for someone who tries to make everything perfect and could get crazy about some typos although knowing how it should be… lol!
Mitch, you know I just love your take on life! I’ve nominated you for the Unique Blogger Award because you do have such a unique voice in the blogging world. If you choose to accept, you can find the details at https://reclaiminghope.blog/2017/10/26/the-unique-blogger-award/
If not, please accept my thanks for brightening my day with your storytelling!
Thank you, Terri. I’ll check it out. Either way, though, I’m honored!
Mitch, how could you? You take all my writing skills and then go turn them into one of your brilliant posts. I just hope you can sleep at night. 😀
Reblogged this on INSPIRATION with an ATTITUDE and commented:
Thanks, Mitch! I’m not so great at proff-reeding, either….
;>)
Amazing how much of Star Trek as become vernacular in our culture. And then there’s Douglas Adams….now where’s my towel???
Incorrect use of “there” and “their” really wind me up, too! This post made me chuckle, love it 🙂
Great quotes, Mitch. Your v you’re is hardly worth mentioning… Isn’t it a fine world when grammar is our greatest contention?
I loved all of these! My personal pet peeve is the apostrophe for plural, so I haven’t killed any puppies (yet). But I could really relate to the definition of the synonym. Whenever I can’t figure out how to spell the word I really wanted to use, I just rephrase the sentence so that words I actually do know how to spell will work.
I’m so guilty!!
;>)
Dammit, the first one. Yes. I honestly can’t make myself concentrate on anything you have to say if you can’t be bothered to punctuate properly.
Love it! I was introduced to ee cummings, who had great distain for spelling, punctuation, and other grammatical rules by a teacher who said, “So long as you, the author, get your message across to the reader, what does it matter?” Have to admit, in my own writings, I sometimes channel cummings; often when I go to correct a post before publishing, I see my errors and just say, “What’s it matter?” and hit the key!
BTDT (been there, done that).
That two animals may die if too many people go to the apostrophe is so sad.
Re Sr. Gracian – They always told us to look up the spelling in the dictionary. That only works if you’re close to start with. I went with his idea.
;>)