A COMMUNITY OF SPELL-CHECKERS ---------------- by Steve Nadis
An astute reader "called in," so to speak, to let me know of an error that occurred in my March 28 entry, "THIS I BELIEVE." I had originally written the following: "After sifting the the various arguments raised..." This reader, with her eagle-sharp eyes, as well as keen mental acuity, informed me of the "double-article" construction, which is frowned upon in the Queen's English. I quickly corrected the offending passage so that it now reads: "After sifting through the various arguments raised..." I apologize for any emotional distress unwittingly caused by this error, especially in view of the delicate subject matter.
Meanwhile, another astute reader--even more astute than the first reader, who is already quite astute, if not very astute, and I mean "quite" in the American (i.e., heightening) sense, rather than in the British (i.e., diminishing) sense--pointed out that what has evolved here is truly quite remarkable: "an online spellchecking (sic) community." I am grateful for all the help I have received in this regard, particularly since my "spellchecking" (sic) software seems to be disabled in blog.com. What's more, I agree with almost everything this well-meaning individual said. Nevertheless, I do take issue with one aspect of his statement: "spellchecking," at least to my way of thinking, ought to be hyphenated.
