Judge not, lest ye--eh, whatever

Earlier this week I was up late and on the computer and saw a link on the Yahoo home page for a column by a so-called health expert who was decrying the harmful effect of the term "whatever" (such as what one says when holding one's thumbs together and extending one's index fingers to form a "w"), noting how it held a tone of dismissal and arrogance that was not a healthy attitude. The negative aspects were broken into paragraphs with identifying headings.

The first heading was (right there on the site): Judgement.

Yep, the British spelling of what we in American English spell as "judgment." (And the writer is American, writing for an American audience.) I'm not saying it's a logical way for us to spell it without the second e, or that it's an uncommon error (because "judge" has the e at that spot), but it's difficult to refrain from being at least a tiny bit judgemental—er, judgmental toward one who has allowed himself to be identified as an "expert" (perhaps not his choice, but I doubt Yahoo held a gun to his head about it) who cannot have someone else proofread his rather obvious assertions before they get posted.

I suppose I think running a spell check isn't all that difficult. Heck, when I left a comment on the piece, the little field in which I typed "judgement" even flagged it as misspelled.

Eh, whatever.

~

That was ridiculously glib. Obvious beyond belief. Not a hint of cleverness in it. (The pollyanna tone of the piece essentially cries out for that reaction. Reviewing the comments left by others, that proved to be the most common response, which undoubtedly allows the writer to consider all of us to be people who desperately need to buy his book.)

It reveals one of my neuroses rather blatantly. I've touched on it before: the way that having a slightly above average familiarity with spelling and grammar and that sort of thing is proving to be of increasingly little importance in contemporary American society. What little my brain has bothered to remember is noticed by others who've made the same mistake with their minds, but not to those who hold sway over what gets noticed by society at large. It's envy of a sort.

This is what the time I have to devote to this hobby allows me to put out for the world to see. There's a reason why I'm not putting myself out there to become one of the risible lot who get tacitly lauded by those who control these avenues of information. I am nothing more than a dilettante and an amateur; I claim nothing more. I make mistakes, certainly. I don't always review my pieces as thoroughly as perhaps I should. While being a small-time operator doesn't justify the mistakes, I more or less believe it does explain them.

And when someone points out a mistake, I rarely make that same one again; I do pay attention enough to improve, even if in tiny ways. I delude myself with the belief that such thoughts somehow justify the way I am.

There is little justifying how I am. That's about the best I can claim to justify myself: I'm not trying to justify myself, so it is, in a roundabout way, the only justification I can possible claim.

(Ooo, that was clever. Eh, now all I need is to write a book and maybe Yahoo will sign me up.)