A Guy Named Brook

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I Like Your Name

I was in Sam's Club picking up a few things.  When it was my turn the cashier seemed to be looking at me off and on.  I wasn't sure if she felt I was not being cordial since I was messing with my Ipod and not making eye contact or saying much.

As she handed me my membership card she said that she liked my name.  She then held up her name badge which said "Brooke".

That was a first.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

People Ranting About Spelling and Grammar Are Stumped Too

A friend on Facebook instigated a thread of rants on spelling, grammar, and pronunciation today.  He launched out with, "Grammar/spelling lesson kids, pay attention! The word is supposeDly not supposeBly!!! Always has been and always will be! The next one I can let slide but if your going to turn a phrase do it right. It is for all intents and purposes not all intensive purposes! That is all...for now."


Many others jumped on with things like confusing your and you're and to and too.  I have people close to me who say libary instead of library and ideal instead of idea and pacifically instead of specifically.  We have always been stumped as to why they do that, even though we have told them.  They have taken the time to research things on how their mind works and they have tied it to possibly being a symptom of Dyslexia.


I pointed out my first two examples to the folks ranting on Facebook.  The response from one woman was, "or could be that people just take the English language for granted.. Yea, that's it...or just plain uneducated.."  Not the improper use of a double period at the end of her sentence.  Stones, glass houses, and all.


Another woman jumped in with, "and its "FRUSTERATED" not "FLUSTERATED". and "SPECIFICALLY" not "PECIFICALLY"...oh there are so many more!!!!"  I could not resist but to comment, "Yeah and FRUSTRATED not FRUSTERATED".  She was a good sport and responded, "UHG! I knew I spelled that wrong! WAY TO GO ME! LOL! ya...what he said..."


I think she had seen the profile picture of a man and went with "he".  After commenting I think she then noticed the name and added another comment, "I mean she...Im just gonna quit for the day..."  Gender can be confusing, but it appears so can when to use an apostrophe.


The confusion between name and profile picture can be a real problem, but that is the subject for a different blog.
http://frommyhumbleperspective.blogspot.com/2011/03/if-i-cant-see-your-face-i-cant-tell-it.html