This is rather distressing; I've clearly upset one of this site's most respected, reasonable and clear-thinking members, without trying to.
I could have made my last post more comprehensible, I suppose; but it would have been written in such a plodding style that it would have resembled a legal document. No fun to either write or read.
"Lording myself"?
I've retired, so I have the time to check what I write - though not always the eyesight - and I do like to at least
try to get it right.
(Yes, I've spotted the split infinitive there. I'm only human.)
But I try not to make character or value judgements about people based on their accents or writing skills. Some of the cleverest people I've met have been almost incomprehensible; a lesson I learned expensively was that of a very shy professor who bumbled his way through lectures; and I, lazy git that I was, more or less matched him bumble-for-bumble in my exam answers. I did not do well. Many years later, I picked up a copy of his book, the one I should have bought whe I was a student, and was amazed at the clarity and beauty of his prose.
Conversely, some people who have been trained to write and speak clearly seem to have no brain left over to think of anything to say; I often find myself in this boat, so I won't rock it too hard, but it is hard not to think of insurance salesmen, estate agents, and the less useful members of the "professions". (Sh%t, he's right, I AM a snob!) Then again, I was pretty bloody useless at what I did, and as a consequence, don't give myself airs and graces - honest! (You just try getting out of my fourteen-year-old, cosmetically challenged Skoda and putting on airs!)
Neither style nor cleverness improve those who use their talents to get an advantage over their fellows; and lack of either does not diminish the value to the world of kind, friendly people who look out for each other. "Kind hearts are more than coronets..."
I guess I just don't like being told what I can't do by someone who has no idea why I can't, or who knows but can't be bothered to explain. If he'd explain, in clear writing, he'd only have to do it once, wouldn't he? It would be on his web-site and notice-board for all to see and understand. Instead of which, he has to try to explain himself to each and every disgruntled customer... he can't be in a good mood after a lap of his lakes.
Hang it, why should I be trying to help the owner of a fishery I'll never visit?
If his customers are happy, and content to go back and hand over their money again, he must be doing something right. Good luck to him, and them.
And you wouldn't want it to get overcrowded.
Especially not with my sort, sitting there, using up a perfectly good swim, being smugly humble
, understanding the clearly-explained rules and catching damn-all.
---------- Post added at 07:29 ---------- Previous post was at 06:50 ----------
Too early in the morning for lucid thought - I've just re-read your post and realised I had'nt actually explained myself
re - " it isn't pedantry..."etc. I meant to imply that the
root cause of my displeasure wasn't those, but suppressed rage at the incident described. "It" seemed so much more economical. Wrong again, I guess.
Pedantry, I tend to support. Snobbery, not.
Then, this: "This is not a dig at those who suffer from dyslexia, on the contrary but
why offer them dispensation, surely incorrect is incorrect. "
My italics. One should "offer them dispensation" for exactly the same reason that you'd hold a door open for someone carrying heavy baggage - it's genuinely more difficult for them.
Incorrect is indeed incorrect, but how much are you supposed to get it right? (Sorry, "How hard are you supposed to work to get it right within the context of the social and possible legal expectations of the intended readership?") Running text through spellcheck is a bit too much like hard work in the context of this forum, but even if you want to get it spot-on, a spelling-checker won't sort "practice" from "practise", tell you it's "hare-" not "hair-"brained, or unscramble the various rhymes for "there" and "to".
Dyslexics can't. The dim aren't aware they haven't. The lazy can't be bovvered. I'll cheerfully hold the figurative door open for the first two, but the last are no better than I and can open their own dam' doors.
Oh, pooh, it is snobbery, I suppose. A bit like not holding the door for some heavily-laden person because their bags are all Fortnum and Harrods. Or Asda. Sorry.
