Kang-er-oodort: An Important New Years Resolution

I’m embarrassed to admit that without spell checker I’d be a mess. My mother was always a stickler for spelling while my father used to begin romantic letters to her with, “To my darling angle”.

Unfortunately, I have followed more in my father’s footsteps than in my mother’s. I am always improving but I am amazed at how often spell check keeps highlighting the same words that I have persistently spelled wrong. You would think I’d learn after a while.

A word that has been particularly challenging for me lately is “certain”. I really don’t like the “a” before the “i”. It just seems to me that it should be “certian”. I am glad to report, however, that I have finally conquered this word and can now spell it correctly most of the time without spell check.

Most embarrassing for me has been the fact that I spelled the “kangeroo” in my screen name wrong from the very beginning. I realized this a while ago but by then I had used it enough that I didn't know how to fix it without drawing attention to my stupidity. I tried to think of some clever reason for using “er” instead of “ar” if someone should call me on it, like: “…because you’ll end up in the ER if you mess with me!”, etc. I eventually decided against that approach, since it was a bit dishonest, not to mention corny.

What surprised me the most is that no one ever pointed out the spelling error. I can only think of three reasons why that would be the case:

1) Those I have corresponded with are very kind and polite and didn't want to embarrass me.

2) They foolishly thought I had a good reason for spelling the word wrong.

3) They don’t know how to properly spell “kangaroo” either.

I like #3 the best as it makes me feel a little less stupid. In any case, I have resolved to spell the word right from now on and I want to publicly thank anyone who knew of my spelling blunder but was classy and kind enough to let it slide. For those of you who fall into the #3 category above I encourage you to admit with me that you didn't have a clue how to properly spell “kangaroo”. It may not make you fell any better, but I assure you it will make me feel better.