Impromptus today has plenty of serious stuff (though not my ranting about teachers’ unions, I’m happy to tell you). And also some lighter stuff. Like misspellings and names. (I mean, those two issues considered separately.)
I talk about two very commonly misspelled words: “desiccate” and “millennium.” (“Accommodate” is another biggie. There are many biggies — I have covered a lot of them in Impromptus, over the years.) A reader now writes,
“My wife and I live on Cemetery Road. No one, it seems, can spell the word. In fact, I’m repeatedly corrected to ‘Cemetary’ by companies and websites, including MapQuest. I can’t get directions unless I type in the wrong spelling!”
Funny. You know what’s another commonly misspelled word? “Misspell,” “misspelling,” etc. People want to drop an “s.”
Also want to tell you that a reader has just sent in a great name. Reading the business pages, she spotted the name of an Accenture executive: Rockwell Bonecutter. A powerhouse of a name, for sure. All I can say is, if your name is Rockwell Bonecutter, you’d better be damn tough.