I often use Twitter to muse about the uber-trivial things that often creep into my head. Yesterday was no different, as I was shepherding my brood home from a faraway place and found myself reaching for the BlackBerry during rest stops. I like the small break from the ordinary that a little bit of wordplay can offer.
So as the trip drew to a close, I tweeted this: Cereal mispellings bug me. Rice Krispies? Froot Loops? Is this the best way to start the day?
Said tweet, through the magic of social media, automatically became a Facebook status update (see here for my home page. It's too early in the day for me to figure out unique URLs of status updates.) Which then touched off a discussion among my readers. So I thought I'd bring it over here, too. Because I'm manic like that.
So, my point is that language is being eroded by deliberate misspellings like this. I recognize that language is under attack on a number of fronts - including the very tools like Twitter and texting that I use to keep in touch while I'm on the run - but there's something particularly galling when it's a major company playing fast and loose with the rules of spelling, grammar and clear communication.
Your turn: Got an example of deliberate misspelling? Does this bug you? Why/why not?
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10 comments:
In all these years I had never noticed that the box said "Froot Loops"... in my mind I saw "Fruit Loops". This proves that I am NOT a morning person... just getting down a breakfast is all I could hope for before leaving for school. I once had a gerbil named Bozo, that loved these sugar loops... an ex-husband too. I prefer oatmeal with blueberries.
These misspellings drive me crazy, too! My son is not quite seven, and he has been noticing them for a while now. When he asks me why something is spelled wrong, I tell him, "They're just trying to be clever, son."
It gets under my skin that one of my favorite fast-food places (if one can have one of those) is Chick-fil-a. Not only is their name a bastardized spelling, but all their marketing uses it, too. I guess the excuse is that it's the cows spelling everything, so it's expected ("Eat mor chikun."). At least the kids notice on Chik-fil-a Night (to raise money for local schools). Go to their homepage and click on "The Cows" to see some examples.
Like srp, I never noticed it was spelled "Froot Loops," either, and I ate quite a few of them when I was a kid.
When you tweeted that last night I had to go google search it to make sure you were right because I had never noticed it before....I'm glad to see I'm not alone!
What drives me crazy is when people spell cool like "kool" to go with some other "K" word. I've seen "krazy" too. Very annoying!
Yeah, when kids don't no that they is rong! no wut i meen?
Aloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
I never noticed it was froot. I always thought it was fruit! u r still my favourite husband 4ever! :D
xoxo
Since my children are long gone from this house and I don't host my grandkids for breakfast often, those cereals don't appear here. I don't mind the deliberate misspellings of product names and logos as much as I abhor the misspelling of to, too, two and other similar words.
The misspelling of things I can cope with, its the abbreviation of sentences that really tick me off!
I told my daughter that I had a friend in school called MILF! she thought it was disgusting that I would say such a word to which I replied what do you mean? It was my friends name!
She told me that MILF means something else nowadays, crazy I tell you absolutely crazy!
One of my most unbearable abbreviations is ROFL!
My brother is the world's worst speller.....well, almost.
I have always been tempted to get him the sweat shirt that reads.......
BAD SPELLERS OF THE WORLD UNTIE1
OOPS... that "1" was supposed to be an "!"
Is my face red yet?
What makes me crazier than anything is the way English has been reduced to that too-cute shorthand born of the chat room (and later of the text message). There was a series of commercials for one wireless carrier or another a while back that illustrated it better than anything else I've seen. An actual (spoken) conversation between a mother and maybe 10- or 12-year-old daughter that went something like:
Mom: "Who are all these texts to?"
Girl: "IDK, my BFF Jill?"
Now in the world of SMS messaging I can forgive this egregious assault on language. A 140-160 character limit does tend to cramp your style a little. But there's no reason for it in communications without space constraint. Call it a pet peeve, but it bugs me when conversation is "reduced 2 OMG moments 4 the sake of ? B4 long we'll have 2 rewrite the dictionary 4ever 2 include all the TLAs. I mean WTF rite?"
I weep 4 the future. ;)
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