"How do you spell it?" we used to ask our Mom when we were forming a word but weren't quite sure if it was correct.
"Look it up," was her prompt and consistent reply.
It was an effective means of getting our lazy butts to use the dictionary (and now that I reflect on these touching family moments, it occurs to me that maybe dear old Marie didn't quite know how to spell the word, either...brilliant strategy!).
At any rate, I think "looking it up" has gone the way of typewriter ribbons and natural family planning. Thanks to spellcheck and Twitter, who needs to spell? Add to that the purposeful misspelling of popular movies - the latest, "Inglourious Basterds" and before that, "Pursuit of Happyness" - and you have grammarians who are fanning themselves with their Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary to keep from pasing out.
And it's not only words, it's punctuation, too. In England, the city of London recently decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they were confusing and old-fashioned.
In my neck of the woods, spelling errors abound in public places. When I told a Postal employee that there was a mistake on a sign in the post office, she crisply informed me that someone "must have stolen the letters." Oh. My bad...
Don't get me wrong, I speak as one who has been struggled mightily with spelling my entire life. I recently published a book and a good friend noted five errors in its 200+ pages. I almost wept when she told me about the typos that persisted even after I edited, rewrote and polished the entire tome at least 20 times.
So I don't point a finger, I just offer empathy, ask you to set a good example for the youngsters and provide this humble advice from Mommy Bones: when in doubt, look it up. And that counts for all you movie directors, too. Quentin, are ya listening?