Time Warp Tuesday --- S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G

The number one thing facing the middle class today happens to be a 3-letter word... J-O-B-S.

--- Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden

Spelling (or even counting in the example above) can make a world of difference! Especially when words are closely related. Jen was laughing at me the other day when I told her in elementary school I meant to sign up for our class party to bring "doughnuts", but instead wrote "dog nuts".

Back when I taught Health and PE if a student was going to miss Phys Ed because of an injury, illness, etc --- they couldn't say, "My head hurts", or "I pulled a muscle"...they would have to announce to the class in more proper terms, "I have a pain in my front cerebellum" or "I have a strain in my hamstring" or other parts of the anatomy they had learned in health class. This led to a young lady announcing to the class that she couldn't participate that day because she had a pain in a very embarrassing part of the anatomy that girls don't have (though it sounds very similar to what she meant to say).

Saying what you mean and meaning what you say is critical. If you are writing, be very careful with each letter as the slightest slip can mean a totally different thing (just ask my former student who meant to start off his lifestyle project with "I am a guy" but accidentally wrote "I am a gay"). But nothing made me laugh more that something that was written on our honeymoon. As part of our package deal, we received a picnic on the beach. They handed us a basket, blanket, etc and away we went. When we opened up our basket we found a little note that meant (at least I hope!) to say "Happy Trails to You!". But a little letter mishap had us greeted with the phrase, "Happy Trials to You!"

Foreshadowing?