And yet another guest contribution from J. Dilkas. For the record, the opinions and ideas expressed are solely (and probably, in the entire universe, only) his own. I see a lot of resumes from kids today that have spelling mistakes. In fact, I was flipping past NBC on Wednesday, headed to the friendly confines of CBS, and I noticed a wreath on the show “Up All Night” was misspelled “In Memorium.” Argh. We’re plagued by duelling plagues. One is that misspelling is rife. The other is that misspelling has no consequences. When I was younger, we were always told that employers and college admissions people would judge you first and foremost by your spelling. Make a mistake and you wouldn’t get a job or a spot in the B.Com. program. What we need is a strong incentive to spell things correctly and I think I have it: blank ballots for elections. If you want to vote for someone, you should know how to spell their name. Even if it’s a non-standard one. If you really care, you’ll learn how to spell it. If not, you probably shouldn’t be voting anyway. It’s an incentive to be both an engaged voter and a proper speller. We need both of those things in spades and we can get them in one fowl swoop. Nice. On another note, this is going to be my last idea for the Standard. I’ve enjoyed my time here, but from here on out, I’ll be spending some time preparing for my show on SUN TV Radio, “Degrees of Dilkas.” We should be ready to roll when SUN TV Radio rolls out on February 1. I look forward to having you hear me there. Dilkas out. __ Ideas Free to a Good Home is a clearing house of ideas that we’re too lazy to develop ourselves.
Idea #46: Spelling Test Ballots
We're plagued by duelling plagues. One is that misspelling is rife. The other is that misspelling has no consequences.