Letters to the Editor
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Amen, Mr. Keillor!
Phew! For a while there I was beginning to think I was the only one still out there who cared about such things as spelling. The 'close enough' enough method now has schools in New Zealand apparently allowing students to do homework and exams using the same - including allowing for 'text speak' so that U and I understand 1 another. 'LOL.' Pardon me while I vomit.
The danger of the 'close enough' method is that we should probably be as forgiving of poor spellers as of a bank employee who makes a punctuation error and wipes out 90% of our life savings, or of Florida election officials who disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters by saying they were criminals in 2000 and were therefore ineligible to vote. Here in the former Soviet Union it means that untold numbers of people have grown up with a bizarre, Germano-English vocabulary and now employ a spelling and writing style that combines elements of the two yet is actually neither. But they're convinced it's English. Not surprisingly here as well, important but glaring details are glossed over in every conceivable facet of life b/c 'people generally understand what we're trying to say'. And this isn't just the locals - it's the Americans, Canadians and Brits, too!
God help us all.