Gramatikly Speaking

For a long time, I thought hassle was spelled hastle. Funny how the rules work when you're not paying attention, and I was critical of Michael Zerbe because the introduction to his book insisted that the contributions of his colleagues could not be "underestimated." Speaking of which (if this can be considered speaking) is refudiating really a word, or is Marilyn Standard-Pseudonym just goofing on me? (cryptic Facebook reference) But on the other hand, why not?

I also thought the level of grammatical consistency in national publications was declining because of electronic communciations, but when I went back and started looking at publications from the Seventies, Twenties, and before 1900, I came to the conclusion that there have always been a lot of typos in all kinds of publications, in spite of pedantic ranting about excellence and accuracy in writing.

Experts like Bennett are probably some of the worst offenders. Not only do they make mistakes, but they claim to set the standards. So is the question really whether the message gets across or not?

Here's Thinking for You.
Iffy