The Version Merry

I have always been a good speller. In the fourth grade I won the class spelling bee and was awarded first prize, a small statue of the Virgin Mary. I was hoping for the cheap pen set, but the runner up got that. It really bugs me when I see misspelled words. That's why I get so irate when I read the comment section of newspaper web sites. Well, that and the stupid comments. One thing I found over the years is that as you get older you are exposed to more and more fancy ass words. Words that are hard to spell. So forty years ago I bought myself a dictionary. Every time I stumbled over a word or a word didn't look right to me, I would look it up. Many times I was surprised. Not by the correct spelling but by the definitions. It turns out that I misused the words more often than I misspelled them. Anyway, now we have the internet and word processor programs that instantly point out when you have misspelled a word. I have become so reliant on those spell check programs that I haven't opened that old dictionary of mine in almost twenty years. I was sitting at my computer today when I noticed it sitting forlorn up on the shelf like an old friend with whom I had lost contact. Using the spell check function on the computer has been a real time saver. No more reaching for that old dictionary and flipping through the pages. The only problem with spell check is that it doesn't always catch certain mistakes. Yew cud ewes the wrong words in a cent tenth and knot even no it, just as long as they're spelled wright.