Tales From The Perimeter: Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation

Perimeter meaning the 6 mile patrol road inside the fence of the military installation on which I work, where some half a dozen of us comprise a pool of running “talent” and strive to show up for a noontime run a couple times a week if we can escape our desks. We share a lot and these guys are one of the core pillars of my sanity.  See also here for a previous post.

Yesterday we had 5 of our 6 potential members show up to run (the missing one injured his hamstring recently in a military Physical Fitness run--somehow that seems ironic--speed does kill). Somehow we got on the topic of people becoming less literate, and being ignorant of the rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar that we all grew up with.

I, who admittedly am anal-retentive, would have made a GREAT editor, and one of my pet peeves is when I read a poorly written email or document. I happened to bring this up during the run and met with violent consensus. I should note that the youngest of our group is in his early 40s; the eldest is 60, so perhaps we are reflecting the view of the "older generation."

The next day, I was moved to compose the following tongue-in-cheek email in response to whether anyone was running.

From: Gary
Sent: xxxxx
To: xxxxx
Cc: xxxxx
Subject: RE: Run today

Sending you a email to tell you Im a no-show, didnt bring my stufff, waiving off the run. See you Thrsuday.

Instead of runnning, for lunch today I will eat 2 cheeseburger's, maybe an hamburger, and a orange. Its what Im hungrey for. Then when I get home I will pet my kat because I like it's soft fur. Their really nice anmimals.

Regrads/Gray
(facetiously messing with speeling, grammer, and punctuashun following yetserday's perimieter conversatoin)