[Rhodes22-list] Musings from the Marina OR Entry for theWorstnon-fiction writing award

[Bill Effros]

Robert,

Sorry I did not make myself clear.  I tried.

The link you provided is British.  Americans tried to make this verbiage 
clear by leaving the apostrophe in front.  When you put the apostrophe 
inside quotation marks and the mailing program converts it--you can't 
understand the point of my comment.

Sadly, you couldn't understand the point of my comment without quotation 
marks, either.

I got the joke.

Changing the spelling of words from spellings that make sense to 
homonyms that don't adds idioms to the language.  People who never knew 
the real origins of words then provide "glurge" to explain the new 
spelling.  Because the glurge makes no sense, the word soon goes 
entirely out of use, making the language one word poorer.

"I await your reply with abated breath." is a wonderful expression of 
mock urgency.

Losing 'bated to baited is sad, and a loss for people who communicate 
with words.

Bill Effros

Robert Skinner wrote:
> Bill,  
>
> Of course "bated" is the correct spelling.  And the
> origin is not American.  From the link that I 
> provided:  "Shakespeare is the first writer known to 
> use it, in The Merchant of Venice"
>
> 1.  You don't get the joke.
>
> 2.  You don't get the joke.
>
> 3.  You don't get the joke.
>
> The bait in this case is the offer of more musings
> from our esteemed elle -- and good bait it is!
>
> You might note, if you were not correcting from the 
> hip, that I included a reference describing the 
> origins and correct usage of the term "bated".
> I figured that anyone who noted the acknowledged 
> odd spelling would get the hint.
>
> Really, man, you are in no position to critique 
> until you have groked the fullness of a message.  
> And maybe not even then.
>
> Please be more respectful in the future.
>
> Thank you,
> /Robert
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok
> --------------------------------------------------
> Bill Effros wrote:
>   
>> I believe the correct American spelling is 'bated, making more clear
>> what is intended.
>>
>> Bill Effros
>>
>> Robert Skinner wrote:
>>     
>>> We await with baited [yeah, I meant to spell
>>> it that way] breath.
>>>
>>> /Robert
>>> http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm
>>> -----------------------------------------------
>>> elle wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Dan,
>>>> The 'Musings' are a function of the boredom factor...
>>>>         
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