SPELLING !!          - 16/6/2009      <--Prev : Next-->


SPELLING !!

I think I am a pretty hot speller, although my Sister In Law in Oz would not agree I am sure.

Suz would go through the Mirror with a fine tooth comb and sends me the list of spelling mistakes, except that now she is the mother of three and certainly does not have time!! But just look at her pedigree, she used to play scrabble with Zimbabwe's finest !!

My WORST is going through the Mirror once complied, with my spell check on. For one thing, I can make the fonts as big as I can for the "old eyes" you know, but the spell check refuses to take a bigger font (Must have a word with those Mac Geeks)

It is amazing how many common spelling mistakes we all have, and I am just as guilty as the next person, even in spite of the endeavours of my favourite English teacher Paddy Vickery !!

Now just have a look at this list of the most common spelling errors ? How many do you mess up on ? Come on fess up ? Well I battle with quite a few.

accessible
accommodate
acquaintance
calendar
chargeable
committee
conscious
embarrass
feasible
manageable
millennium
emission
privilege
recommend
referral
separate
sizable
suspicious
tendency
Oh me oh my, it does not matter how many times my spell checker corrects my spelling, I still spell quite a few of the same words incorrectly.

And although I beg and plead with my advertisers "Please run a spell check on your adverts" Some do not do it !!

But I must give credit where credit is due. The one and only person I never ever have to run a spell check on is my dear friend Michael Bullivant.

Chairman of the Academy of Music, Chairman of Performing Arts Bulawayo, Milton Senior master for many years, Michael never ever makes a spelling error. He sends me screeds of stuff for Morning Mirror - wonderful dissertations on his amazing musical concoctions.

We must have, for a tiny city the size of a hairball, the most progressive musical society in the Southern hemisphere.

Now would you even DARE to run a spell check on something like this ???

ZIMBABWE ACADEMY OF MUSIC & PERFORMING ARTS BULAWAYO

Friday 12 June : Glazunov: Raymonda Robert Sibson Hall at 6.30 p.m. There will be a supper interval. Carriages: 10.00 p.m.

Glazunov's Raymonda is a full-length romantic ballet, the last in which Petipa participated, and this lavish Bolshoi production draws on his original choreography. "Natalya Bessmertnova is a charmingly graceful heroine and she's well partnered by her elegant Knight, Yuri Vasyuchenko, but it is the villainous Sheik, sinisterly portrayed by Gedminas Taranda, who steals the show...Undoubtedly this is the Bolshoi at their peak, and the orchestral playing is first class, as is the recording. This is indispensable for ballet lovers." (Penguin Guide)

Tuesday 16 June : Luis Alberto Llaneza.(baritone), Jeanette Micklem (piano) Robert Sibson Hall at 7.30 p.m.

Luis Alberto Llaneza is on his first visit to Zimbabwe. "Born in 1964 in Turon, he studied at the University of Oviedo, did repertoire training with Gyuiar Prender in Budapest and attended master classes with Alfredo Kraus and Victoria de los Angeles. The emphasis of his repertoire lies with Spanish music and encompasses classical and chamber music as well an extensive coverage of the Zarzuela genre. His many performances have taken him to all countries in Western as well as Eastern Europe, the United States and South America. The composer Manuel Garcia Morante has written many songs especially for him, celebrating for instance the lyrical work of Fernando Garcia Lorca, with a world premiere in Prague in 1996. Luis lectures on vocal music at various universities, gives master classes at European and American Conservatories and is involved in Musicological Research."

I just scan through the spell checklist, knowing full well that I have never ever managed to catch Michael out !

He is a Thespian after all. He used to write a column in the Chronicle, I think called "Thespian" in the days of yore and HeeHoo and I would read it, not understanding a single word, and gaze in ardent admiration at his command of the English language and also at the words he could find.

Michael can find words that you and I lesser mortals have never ever heard of. It so fascinated HeeHoo that he now gets a daily "Word" from Meriam Webster which he delights in sending me.

The last one he sent was embonpoint \ahng-bohng-PWANG (the "ng" is never pronounced, but the vowels are nasalized)\ noun : plumpness of person : stoutness

Now I took this rather personally and went running for two days and on a diet for three, but the feeling wore off when I got his next word which was obnubilate \ahb-NOO-buh-layt\ verb

There is not much one can do about that sort of word !! I doubt if even Michael or my sister in law would know what obnubilate means for Pete's sake !!

I sometimes think that I have caught Michael out with his spelling but alas no, he has a Stiff Upper Lip British dictionary on his lowly computer while I have a superior Apple with a USA dictionary, so my glee is always short lived.

Just you wait Enry Iggins, I will catch you out one day !!

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