News, Wink,The spelling thing grates me too, but as you say,...

News, Wink,
The spelling thing grates me too, but as you say, it's a lost cause.

One thing the internet has exposed is the unbelievably bad spelling and grammar prevalent throughout the world.

Shopkeepers, ebay sellers, who cannot distinguish between a possessive and a plural ( camera's for sale)...

Journalists who give us alternate roads through flooded areas instead of alternative ones...

Posters here who still cannot see that THERE way of spelling should be THEIR.

In Australia the blame lies with education departments for dumbing down English and dropping parts of speech, grammar and spelling from the curriculum for an entire generation or two.

When I was only 10 years old the difference between a clause and a phrase was drummed into us... how a verb modifies a noun...the active and passive tense...the subjunctive mood.

I doubt now whether anyone under 30 or 40 knows.

Their--sorry, there---are standard rules of communication simply so we can communicate coherently rather than descend into a babble.

....But it is no fun being the only sober person at a party...and so a lost cause to try to (rather than try AND which, incidently, is also grammatically wrong) correct everyone's spelling.

OK, rant over. Keep an eye on those pesky 150 minute sma resistance lines.