Monday, February 01, 2010

Monday Gripes, 2/1/10

I was reminded today of a catastrophic misspelling (the offender shall remain nameless) that really sets my teeth on edge. It's an adverb that's defined as "without much doubt, seems reasonably true."

The word is "probably," and as you may guess, it comes from the word "probable."

What really drives me batty is when people spell it "prolly." Oy! My only guess about this flagrant misspelling is that those people are spelling it phonetically--and "prolly" is the way they pronounce it.

(Suitable interval while Liz faints from the pain of it all, falls to the floor with a thud, slowly reawakens, shakes her head and staggers to her feet)

Oh. My. God. Please people, please, the word is PROBABLY. Pronounce and spell it right, and you'll add years to my life. I swear.

Okay, I feel better now that I've gotten that off my chest!

My second gripe for today is my own failing memory. I suppose everyone forgets things now and then; it's only human. And as we get older, we tend to forget more than we used to. (For instance, we forget what it feels like to be able to do a hundred sit-ups in a row. Seriously.)

What really irritates me is when I forget things that have a timely nature to them, i.e., a doctor's appointment, a phone call that needs to be made, when the post office closes. It's not so much that I forget them that bugs me, but that I remember them when it's too late to do anything about it but smack my forehead and swear.

What, exactly, is up with that?

I mean, if I'm going to forget I have a doctor's appointment until it's too late to go, why remember it then? I'd be much happier, if I have to forget, then to never remember at all. Because you see, remembering too late creates guilt and stress, something that's bound to only make me forget even more things.

So that's my request of my own peculiar gray matter: either do your job with one hundred percent efficiency (okay, I'll take ninety), or just forget about it. Tell me, is that too much to ask?

No comments: