Petalu

Until sometime in the second grade, I misspelled my first name. For the life of me, I couldn't remember if the "u" went first or the "a." Thus began a lifelong issue with spelling. Note: I misspelled "misspelled" when I first typed it in.

(My children, on the other hand, have been able to correctly spell their names since they were three years old.)

Apparently, I am not alone in my misspelling of "misspell." It makes the list of the 100 most commonly misspelled words in the English language according to YourDictionary.com. Note: I just misspelled "dictionary." Sigh.

100 Most Often Mispelled Misspelled Words in English

Well, I think I've worked the word "misspell" into this blog enough. So, without further adieu: guud bi.

Mispeled

So, it seems I'm not the only one who can't function without spell check. When the San Francisco Giants' Eugenio Velez took the field on Wednesday night against our beloved Houston Astros, his jersey read "San Francicso." Even I can see that's wrong.

Apparently, last year, two Washington National players hit the field with "Natinal" scrawled across their jerseys. Looks like you can't run spell check on baseball jerseys.

I'm not making fun. I'm merely recognizing a kindred spirit or two out there. I misspelled my own first name until sometime in the second grade. (I plead the fifth on whether I have misspelled it in the past year.)

All I can say is that those six linguists from Georgetown University who invented the first spell-check system for IBM are some one of my heroes. (Like how I worked something random into a sentence?)

On a different note . . . You've probably heard or seen the Spellchecker Poem. If not, here's a link: http://www.paulhensel.org/teachspell.html

Right on.