Monday, June 6, 2011

Dear Dictionary, Suck It.

Our girl Lindsay @ Living With Lindsay got a ridiculously helpful comment on a post that's over a year old   It was from someone with a throw away email address from Mailinator.com. so... anonymous. She totally loves it when people take their precious time to point out spelling and grammatical errors on her site, in this case, the difference between plead and pleat.  And no, she’s not going to correct the error because it's not as big of a deal to her as it apparently is to others, and to quote Miss Lindsay ”eYe LyKe tOo MiSsPeL WuRdS.”

The Hater Says:
plead
(plēd) pronunciation
v., plead·ed, or pled (plĕd), plead·ing, pleads.
v.intr.
   To appeal earnestly; beg: plead for more time.
   To offer reasons for or against something; argue earnestly: plead against a bill.
   To provide an argument or appeal: Your youth pleads for you in this instance.
   Law.
       To put forward a plea of a specific nature in court: plead guilty.
       To make or answer an allegation in a legal proceeding.
       To address a court as a lawyer or advocate.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/plead#ixzz1Mqok5r6p
______________________________________________________________________
pleat
(plēt) pronunciation
n.
A fold in cloth made by doubling the material upon itself and then pressing or stitching it into place.
tr.v., pleat·ed, pleat·ing, pleats.
To press or arrange in pleats: pleat a skirt; pleat curtains.
[Middle English plet, variant of plait, pleat, fold. See plait.]
pleater pleat'er n.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/pleat#ixzz1Mqp1NLq0
 
The Slammed Blogger Says:

Passive Aggressive Personality
(′pas·iv ə′gres·iv ′pərs·ən′al·əd·ē)
(psychology) A personality disorder characterized by the passive expression of hostility and aggressiveness, as by stubbornness, pouting, or inefficiency.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/passive-aggressive-personality#ixzz1MqxgY9X7

Mandi Says:
Since we are doing definitons…
Freaking Lame:
People who take 10 minutes out of their lives to tell you that you misspelled  a word.  GET OFF YOUR COMPUTER AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR KIDS!  Seriously. Plus why would you need to be basically anonymous to do that? Its not like you’re saying “Lindsay you're fat and ugly and your husband looks like a girl” Which would warrant an anonymous name.  Definitions?  Seriously don’t be a pansy.
ps. the post is over a year old… NO ONE CARES.

Viv Says:
OK, I will readily admit that I am persnickety about grammar and spelling.  I am an English dork and I have friends and family who send me their written materials so that I might give a quick editorial check before they turn in their essay or fire off an email.   I read the original post and it is possible that I developed a small facial tic every time I came to the word plead instead of pleat.

Here's the thing though... I knew what the blogger meant.

In a situation like this, why post a snarky, rather spiteful comment?  If the Hater really wanted to correct that spelling error, the way to do it is a direct email to Lindsey.  If someone had spinach in their teeth, the proper thing to do is discreetly pull them aside and let them know... Not grab a megaphone and shout it across the room at a dinner party.

It just goes to show that while the Hater might know the difference between plead and pleat, they don't know the difference between honey and vinegar, and which one is the best for catching flies.


What do you say?

13 comments:

Judy C said...

In a world that has hunger, natural disasters, wars, and a bad economy everywhere, Plead or Pleat seems like a real waste. Granted, reading blogs may be a waste to some but they can be relaxing. Someone who feels like hot stuff because they can look up words in a dictionary and can type is a toxic person in my book and tends to take the relaxing nature out of blogging. I don't correct anyone when they make a mistake in oral speech(former school teacher here) so why in the world would I consider myself enough of an expert to do it in a blog?

Unknown said...

To me that is another way to boost their own self-image. When I see a misspelled word I just know it was probably a typo. Love this blog.
QMM

Lori E said...

She should be made to sit in a chair and read Facebook posts from young people for a week straight. That would make her head actually spin.
I will tease people I "know" when they slip up and their mistake makes what they have written funny and they do it in return but never would I do it to a random blogger who I have no relationship with.

Craft-a-Boo said...

I loved this post. It made me laugh really hard. Congratulations hater, you proved a point that you can type, and look things up! WAHOO! Now go sit under a rock because that's where you belong if this is your attitude! :-)

Good Time Charlie said...

Having been an editor of (very little importance) in my past life, I too can't help but correct things, but only in my head. I am sure I make grammatical mistakes/abuse the English language in poor writing skills daily, due to my advancing age and exposure to daily paint fumes and smelly boys. I just find it so odd and frankly quite pathetic that anyone a) has the time to correct someone's grammar on a post, and b) even cares! Someone clearly has no life, except to troll the blogosphere looking for misuses of the English language. I never cease to be amazed at the amount of time people will spend to discount, demean and generally bash one another in such a cowardly, anonymous format. Must be one very unhappy person. Poor soul. Needs to get some other interests.

Macey said...

LOLing at the Passive Agressive Personality. Haaa!

Macey said...

And looky there...I misspelled aggressive.

Just this... Alice said...

I would have to say to anonymous that That Ship Sailed over a year ago and you are just now making your comment about a spelling error. You must be so blooming bored out of your skull that you hunt for things to complain about when you run out of your immediate arsenal of slurs. Get a life do a craft and make yourself more useful than your comment on a year old post. You haven't done a good deed by your corrective comment. Anonymous HAHA Are you so afraid to give your real name that you feel the need to hide behind the name of Anonymous?. Sorry to get on my soap box but this gets my hackles up to see such pettiness. I can't get over the fact she/he felt it important to make that correction on such an old post.

MeMeSue said...

I had to kinda sorta laugh when I just read the title of this post as I know how Viv is with words....HA HA...I get nervous just thinking about sending her a comment and read and reread hoping not to have any errors!! On the other hand different families have ways of saying and spelling things that sometimes just can't be broken. My husbands family for instance say "That is mines" "Mines is better than yours" "Will you take mines and I'll take yours" Drives me insane and I've tried for 14 years to break this to no avail. They also say "That was my ideal" "Do you get the ideal" HA HA Is that tic going Viv??

I don't understand why someone has to try to make themselves feel (getting my dictionary out now) superior by pointing out things like that!

Lesley said...

First of all...
YAY! I stumbled upon her tutorial a year ago and my kids and I ended up making beautiful doilies into bowls for mother's day. Is mother's day supposed to be capitalized? Ugggg.
So thank you Lindsay for the inspiration.
Second...I hate this hater. Seriously. Effin troll. I am a huge stickler in real life for grammar and punctuation, under certain circumstances, though. Like when you pass a bank and the sign in the window says " You're money is safe with us! "
That drives me crazy because it's in the window of a professional institute and clearly had a dozen ad people see it before it went to print. Then someone ordered it, hung it and walked away. Too many stupid people in that mix.
But this....this is a typo...on a blog...not reviewed by anyone but the writer.
RELAX asshat.

Jenny Lynn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jenny Lynn said...

love what you are doing here. I am not a great writer. When my family found out I was a blogger. My own mother wanted to be me to send her my post to edit.(she is a school teacher) At first I was upset. Then I remembered that I do it for my family and for me. So why take away the fact that I am not perfect. Let every one see my imperfections, because if that is all I am doing wrong right now. Then I am doing pretty well, in my opinion.

Youaretalkingtoomuch.com said...

I say....PLEASE, PLEASE, tell me if there is a misspell or glaring grammar error that wasn't meant in sarcasm....BUT, I agree on tact. Please don't tell me I have a boogie hanging out of my nose, OUTLOUD, IN PUBLIC.....subtly or privately tell me. That's my 2cents. Love, Me
www.youaretalkingtoomuch.com