As language fans, we are cursed. Even when we are not at work, we can’t turn off that inbuilt spellcheck. Menus, signs, emails from friends, texts, newspapers, magazines… they all get passed through the filter to some extent. It doesn’t tend to annoy me, particularly. Off-duty, I’m reasonably good at ignoring it - or, if it’s a good ‘un, finding it funny. However, I know it annoys some people greatly.
Take my mother, for example. Last week she went to the gym and found that the poorly written sign below had been stuck to every cross-trainer. So what did she do? Smile smugly and ignore it? Have a giggle to herself? Forget about it? Or frantically scrabble at it with her fingernails, trying to peel it off because she couldn’t stand the sight of it?
In answer, may I present to you the picture that arrived in my inbox today. It doesn’t appear to be attached to a cross-trainer any more…
