26th May 2004, 6:26 PM
Actually, there are like 3 versions of that phrase ABF. The first one is rather general. It's also proof of the stupidity of the various spelling rules we have in the English language. What kind of rule has like 30 exceptions IN the rule itself? The 3rd version, right after the neighbor and weigh part says "and in strange words like "weird". I mean, that's REALLY specific right there... Face it, i before e is not really a good rule at all because there are more words that actually BREAK that exception than follow it! Same with things like how the "unusual" verbs outnumber the "common" verbs by far. (There aren't nearly as many verbs that actually have the whole "knock knocked knocking" format for all their forms as there are verbs that don't.) And those silent letters... Oh yes, through! Now, England seems to think we Americans spell it "thru". Online, yes I guess. Anyway, comedians sure approve of it. Through... right... It's like "edgy artists" decided how to spell things. As that comedian put it, they must have had a bunch of letters left over after spelling all the words and had to hide them in words. "Oh, let's just hide this o in there, it kinda sounds right, and how about an h..." "An h?" "Oh, we'll just tell them it's a SILENT h! Hahaha!" "Brilliant!" Yeah, and also a g! Yeah, I know it doesn't sound right but Knight is already stuffed to the brim here! Oh, and a q and a p and a zed!" (Zed, now there's a weird way to say z...) "There! Now we have a word that's worth 50 billion points in Scrabble!"
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)