Friday, February 17, 2006

u bst bettr rcogniz spllng, btchs

in an effort to streamline our communicative lives, Motorola has been introducing slimmer, more tote-able phones. and they have slimmer names to match, which seem to need all capital letters:

RAZR
PEBL
SLVR

are these secret acronyms to represent some sort of weekend golf game inside joke among the suits? did some ad agency advise them to try to be all --forgive the pun-- cutting edge? or maybe it's just a cost-effective measure: remove any absolutely unecessary letters and save some cash? dude, pat sajak and vanna white want their little wheel of fortune charge-for-vowels trick back.

whatever the reason, it's annoying. and confusing. btw, that last one they have is supposed to be 'sliver' not 'silver, which is what i thought when i first read it. see? placement of the vowel can completely change the meaning. this, coupled with the bastarization of the english language that probably started with instant messaging is why kids can't spell for crap anymore. just watch, they'll bump televised spelling bees up to regular ESPN -- it's competition that takes a rare and dying skill.
at

7 comments:

  1. Jon2/17/2006 7:47 PM

    I’m an English major with surprisingly little spelling skills, but this still bugs the crap out of me too. In protest of this, I will now pronounce them in the following manner:

    Razz – are
    Pee- blah
    Solar Variable

    I don’t expect much of a following.

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  2. cadiz122/18/2006 3:10 AM

    oh and i forgot the ROKR, too.
    sheesh

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  3. neena maiya (guyana gyal)2/18/2006 4:46 AM

    But what are the teachers in school doing? And parents at home? That puzzles me. Here, people pass exams and they can barely string two sentences together. I'm baffled.

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  4. Willowtree2/18/2006 12:09 PM

    I think soon, it may just be symbols. Why bother with spelling at all?

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  5. Anonymous2/19/2006 8:27 PM

    you mean BASTARDIZATION (of the english language)...

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  6. cadiz122/19/2006 8:56 PM

    yes, you're right, anonymous. bastardization. but there's no need to be shy about being so astute by commenting without an identity; everyone needs a copyeditor. i know i definitely do.

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  7. Syar2/19/2006 11:10 PM

    I'm always peeved about the motorola SLVR. I don't know what it's really called and yet I'm in love with that phone.

    what if its some new stylized form of spelling saliva? Sa-Li-Ve-R.

    I'm going with solar variable.

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