It reminded me of an idea I had recently - there should be a league of freelance editors and fact-checkers, trolling the blogosphere and editing people's blogs for a modest fee. I'm sure there are hundreds of retired schoolteachers who would love to do battle against cyberspace illiteracy, and maybe earn a few dollars and some recognition as well. I sort of envision it as becoming a competitive, slightly subversive thing, like hackers but with better spelling. The best, fastest blog editors might even attain celebrity status - I can imagine posts like this one popping up:
Can I just tell you how cool it is that the star blog editor redpencil37 visited World Wide Fred today?! In just, like, 14 minutes, she fixed all my wack-ass grammar, and she even noticed that I had spelled the name of my dog Phishy four different ways, all for just $5 a post! Now all I have to do is go back and find all the places she wrote in "[sic]" - that must stand for "so incredibly cool!"Anyway, I hope my idea some day becomes a reality - in the meantime, I guess all the bloggers out they're will just have to edit there own work. So their.
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7 comments:
Matt,
I really enjoyed this post! Very funny! Except if my friend Tim finds out that someone is promoting financial remuneration for blog editing, he'll want to start charging. Actually, knowing him he probably couldn't help himself. One of his hobbies is correcting individuals' mispronunciation and he does it maliciously. I have to say that whether I like it or not I'm going to become a more astute writer if by no other reason at least by the sheer goodness of the philanthropic blog editors of the free world. Hmmm...yes the free world...sounds nice, I think I'll go they're.
davis - An appealing vision, if maybe a slightly socialist one. Wouldn't it be equally nice, and much more capitalist, to have a world in which everyone's annoying habits can become marketable skills? Need a nose-picker? He'll be there in 15 minutes, have your credit card ready! Okay, maybe that wouldn't be nice at all.
I'll be careful not to tell your friend Tim, though if he does find out, I expect a cut.
Tim's Tidbits
I am ashamed of this, but just the other day my mother emailed me and asked me, "Why did you Ban Anna?"
I had written a post on snootertoot about My daughter's 90-second (notice the correct hyphenation) banana-eating feat, but, alas, I had FOOLISHLY misspelled banana as bananna.
The world goes 'round (please notice again, the correct usage of punctuation) with the collective efforts of the grammar and spelling police, of which I am (self-styled) Chief.
I am not energized by philanthropic motivations, I am energized by the thrill of the virtual "smack-down" - the natural "high" I get when given the chance to give someone a "cyber" beating after finding common, easily avoided SILLY mistakes (like reread, Davis).
I have one more web site to share with both of you fine gentlemen.
Common Errors in English
p.s. I would have chosen to render the phrase, "An appealing vision, if maybe a slightly socialist one." this way:
"An appealing vision, if maybe a slightly socialistic one."
As a socialist is a person who believes in socialism. Socialism being a belief in a system of socialistic philosohpies.
tim gallagher - Wow, Tim, I'm impressed - you sound like just the kind of person I'm looking for - smart, self-confident, anal...
I also appreciate the freebie on the use of the word "socialist". Suffixes were never my strong suit; I always worry about being oversuffixualizisticational.
Anyway, this sounds like the beginning of a promising and mutually beneficial relationship - we should sit down some time and get it in writing, though. I know a place that serves great philosohpies. Nothing better than a pie philled with osoh.
I was hoping you'd notice I left a little low hang ripe fruit for you to pluck!
Ha!
:)
I am retarded.
I also have a confession.
I did not intentionally misspell philosophy.
There you have it.
I am so ashamed.
- Tim
tim - That's alright, no need to be ashamed! Amusing comments are always welcome at hella frisch, and the more creative uses of the English language, the better - as far as I'm concerned, any day on which I don't make up at least one new word, that's a day wasticated.
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