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Speling Madders We all get roaming email funnies. I delete 99.9% Good for a laugh: European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as “”Euro-English””. In the first year, “”s”” will replace the soft “”c””. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “”c”” will be dropped in favour of “”k””. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “”ph”” will be replaced with “”f””. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “”e”” in the languag is disgrasful and it Continue reading →

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… – – – … LiveScience.com – Era Ends: Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams The last telegram was sent on January 26, 2006 without fanfare or notice. First, long distance service became more cost effective, then came the fax machine, and then, as the article says, email was the nail in the telegram’s coffin. What next, the end of the stagecoach? RIP, Telegram

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Here’s one of those rare times when a pass-a-long is worthy of a second look. Shown below, is an actual letter that was sent to a bank by a 96 year old woman. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times. Dear Sir: I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire salary, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank. My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, prerecorded, faceless Continue reading →

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LINK Are Americans Ruder Than They Used To Be? Poll Cites Road Rage, Cell Phone Talk POSTED: 8:02 am EDT October 14, 2005 UPDATED: 8:10 am EDT October 14, 2005 WASHINGTON — Americans’ fast-paced, high-tech existence has taken a toll on the civil in society. From road rage in the morning commute to high decibel cell-phone conversations that ruin dinner out, men and women behaving badly has become the hallmark of a hurry-up world. An increasing informality — flip-flops at the White House, even — combined with self-absorbed communication gadgets and a demand for instant gratification have strained common courtesies to the breaking point. “All of these things lead to a world with more stress, more chances for people to be rude to each other,” said Peter Post, a descendent of etiquette expert Emily Post and an instructor on business manners through the Emily Post Institute in Burlington, Vt. In some cases, the harried single parent has replaced the traditional nuclear family and there’s little time to teach the basics of polite living, let alone how to hold a knife and fork, according to Post. A slippage in manners is obvious to many Americans. Nearly 70 percent questioned in an Continue reading →

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