I'm beginning to wonder...

I am not sure what percentage of Audiogoners may be native English speakers. I for one was born and raised over the Pond. The Queen's language is not my first language, not by any stretch of the imagination. It's my 4th one, hence my occasional lapses into homophones, gallicisms, and otherwise unusual syntax. There are myriads of reasons why some Audiogoners may write with rickety grammar or creative spelling. . . ESL is just one of them. . . then there is dyslexia, a very common condition in the North American human male. . . some of us may have excelled in subjects other than English composition during our long gone school days. . . some of us just plain forgot to remember that 'similar' may sound 'familiar', yet it does not spell 'similiar', that 'audition' has really 2 'i's instead of 1, but that 'comparison' has only 1 instead of 2, and 'and many of us are just tired by the end of day, and we rather apply our finesse to the Muse rather than to the pen. . . hence our admitted imperfections. G.

And now, how about a rousing chorus of that Mac Davis Country classic:

Oh Lord it's hard to be humble
When you're perfect in every way.
I can't wait to look in the mirror

'cos I get better looking each day
To know me is to love me

I must be a hell of a man.
O Lord it's hard to be humble
But I'm doing the best that I can.

I used to have a girlfriend
But I guess she just could'n't complete
With all of these lovestarved women
Who keep clamouring at my feet.
Well I probably find me another
But I guess they're all in awe of me

Who cares I never get lonesome
Cause I treasure my own company.

Oh Lord it's hard to be humble
When you're perfect in every way.
I can't wait to look in the mirror

'cos I get better looking each day
To know me is to love me

I must be a hell of a man.
O Lord it's hard to be humble
But I'm doing the best that I can.

I guess you can say I'm a loner

A cowboy outlaw tough and proud
Well
I could have lots of friends if I wanted
But then I wouldn't stand out from the drowd

Some folks say that I'm "egotistical
Well I don't even know what that means
I guess it has something to do with the
Way that I fill out my skintight blue jeans.

Oh Lord it's hard to be humble
When you're perfect in every way.
I can't wait to look in the mirror

'cos I get better looking each day
To know me is to love me

I must be a hell of a man.
O Lord it's hard to be humble
We are doing the best that we can.

Compose in Word, spell-check, then post to Audiogon.

Although it can sometimes be pretty comical when people over-rely on spell-check, and don't bother to proofread what they've written. Spelling and grammar checkers often will not flag an error in which the words are spelled correctly, but the wrong word is used.

A while back I had occasion to create the following test sentence. The spelling AND grammar checker in Microsoft Word 2002 did not pick up any of the six errors I introduced:

Intended sentence: "I wish to convey my compliments to the chef."

Sentence with 6 errors introduced, none of which were picked up by Word 2002's spelling and grammar checker:

"I wise to convoy me complements two the chief."

-- Al :)