[jambutty]

In days of old when men were bold and women – er I’d better not finish that. Long before the advent of computers people like me used a pen, ink and paper to actually write real letters by hand. Then came the fountain pen and then the ballpoint pen, which made life a bit easier for the letter writer. However I have always had a dictionary to hand to check the spelling of words that I was unsure of. But then I care about what I write.

I do use my both my brain cells Lea but as you get older you tend to forget small relatively unimportant things. So a grammar and spelling checker in a word processor is just another tool to use so why not use it if it is available. It helps to try and make sure that I write what I mean and conversely mean what I write.

Shouldn’t is indeed the opposite of should but if I had used should instead of shouldn’t the whole meaning of the sentence would have changed. Strictly speaking there is no such word as shouldn’t but language evolves over time so it has now become acceptable to use shouldn’t, couldn’t or wouldn’t.

There is a huge difference between evening and night today although I would imagine that over time they would both come to mean the same thing. Right now night means the dark hours and evening means the period between the afternoon and night. When those times are according to a clock is wide open to interpretation. However in general people will view the evening as between 6:00pm and the average going to bed time.

Sarcasm is indeed the lowest form of wit DeShark and can be used effectively on the right occasion.

Ah! The question of commas – a contentious point. When I was taking the “A” level Creating Writing course at Blackburn College several years ago the Professor who marked my work put the comment “so may commas”. Some people like commas all over the place and others do not. But if you feel that my prose is lacking in commas then that is your opinion. I just happen to disagree. Otherwise I would have put more in. Of course I could have combined those last two sentences to satisfy your desire for commas and wrote, “I just happen to disagree, otherwise I would have put more in.”

Er! I’m 69 not 61.

You post was timed at 2138 BST so to answer your question – no it’s too early for a doddering old fart like me to be in bed. There is far too much fun to be had on this forum.

Uh! Oh! An admonishment from Len.

Please sir! Mr Moderator sir! It was him and her and him and me who started it. Please don’t make me kneel on dried peas again!

THE END!