The Official 356Talk Forum

Maybe in the US we should adopt the following:

The European Union Commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, it was conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and a five year phased plan has been accepted for what will be known as Euro-English (Euro for short).

In the first year, “s” will be used instead of the soft “c”. Sertainly sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard “c” will be replased with “k”. Not only will this klear up konfusion, but keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome “ph” will be replased with “f”. This will make words like “fotograf” 20 persent shorter.

In the third 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 horible mes of silent “e”s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps lik replasing “th” with “z” and “w” wiz “v”.

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou”, and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After ze fifz yer , ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

I haven't had this much "Book Learning" since I read the back of my Raisin Bran Box at Breakfast.

Wes, I like that. Is it of your own design or from elsewhere?

I can't take credit for it. I think I lifted that from someplace, but it was so many years ago that I don't remember quite where. Drives my spell-checker absolutely crazy....

Dave Wildrick wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 12:31 pm

Adam Wright wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 11:18 pm

Ron LaDow wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 11:14 pm Adam,
Gotta ask, are you trolling us with the apostrophe?

I'm no good at trolling...

Ron, I'm not sure he got it.
"Websites" not "Website's."
If we want to be really picky, no malice intended, there's no hyphen in "misspellings."

I missed it as I was rereading the text for the apostrophe.
Subtle.

Reputable websites like CNN and FOX...…………..What??????????

The erudition of this website has just taken a giant leap.

After reading through some recent threads on this forum, Adam's title is a lot more truth than poetry. Misspelled words, sentences that run on with no hint of punctuation, etc. Come on guys. We're more educated than that. What are future generations going to think when they read these things?

(Don't take my word for it. Check 'em out. If the shoe fits.....)

I believe the title was poking fun on purpose.

David: I wish I had learned all that in college, 1960 to 1964 but it was more fun fixing Porsche and VW automobiles. It sill is! al

True, Adam. I've been writing magazine articles since 1972 and edited a national magazine for 25 years. I still edit a few high-quality automotive books every year and recently began writing book reviews for an automotive magazine. Back in The Old Daze, most magazines paid professional contributors, so the writing quality was pretty high. Now, most magazines (and all websites) expect you to write for nothing more than the glory of seeing your name in print or on the screen, so any fool can send material. Worse, there are fewer good editors to catch errors. Editing takes time and money, so some publications have dispensed with those costs. Local newspapers have been infested with errors. Some books, I can't even read because they are so poorly written or edited.

I just quit the book review gig because they wanted me to spend dozens of hours reading a book such as Porsche, Excellence Was Expected, writing a 500-word review, scanning images, etc. For this, they paid me the princely sum of $150 and said the column would "enhance my reputation." Oh, or they could give me ad space instead, so I could sell books. No legitimate magazine allows its advertisers to write editorial material, as it's a huge conflict of interest.

And get off my lawn!

Frank Barrett wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2020 3:58 pm True, Adam. I've been writing magazine articles since 1972 and edited a national magazine for 25 years. I still edit a few high-quality automotive books every year and recently began writing book reviews for an automotive magazine. Back in The Old Daze, most magazines paid professional contributors, so the writing quality was pretty high. Now, most magazines (and all websites) expect you to write for nothing more than the glory of seeing your name in print or on the screen, so any fool can send material. Worse, there are fewer good editors to catch errors. Editing takes time and money, so some publications have dispensed with those costs. Local newspapers have been infested with errors. Some books, I can't even read because they are so poorly written or edited.

I just quit the book review gig because they wanted me to spend dozens of hours reading a book such as Porsche, Excellence Was Expected, writing a 500-word review, scanning images, etc. For this, they paid me the princely sum of $150 and said the column would "enhance my reputation." Oh, or they could give me ad space instead, so I could sell books. No legitimate magazine allows its advertisers to write editorial material, as it's a huge conflict of interest.

And get off my lawn!

We used to call that Advertorial, and it was a no-go. But things have changed a lot in the last 20 years. Even when we were slowing down the magazine the advertisers were making more and more demands and with dwindling ad dollars, they had the leverage.

It's too bad, from years of copy editing I still read that way, and yes it take's out the enjoyment when you're reading something full of errors.

Adam, you just can’t help yourself can you?

"take's out"?

Either out belongs to some guy Take, or Take is out. Your choice.