Borborygmi

Steve Blevins

Steve Blevins
Location
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Birthday
November 05
Bio
Steve Blevins teaches medicine at the University of Oklahoma. He enjoys reading, music, and travel. He is interested in American and European history, French literature and culture, and music for piano and chamber ensemble.

OCTOBER 22, 2009 1:30PM

Can You Spell These Words?

Rate: 52 Flag

Yesterday, Cartouche pointed out that "restaurateur" was misspelled on the OS Cover. This morning I learned that my high school English teacher, Dr. Elizabeth van Hamersveld, died. This post is dedicated to the memory of Dr. van Hamersveld.  She taught me to love literature and writing.


Spelling Test 

Each sentence below contains a commonly misspelled word. Choose the correct spelling. You will receive five points for each correct answer.  A perfect score is 100. The answers appear in "Comments." Good luck!

1. Gary Justis' art (accomodates/accommodates) the modern world tastefully.

2. Juliet Waters sees Montreal as a (bellwether/bellweather) of urban planning.

3. Fingerlakeswanderer wrote about Section 60 at Arlington National (Cemetary/Cemetery).

4. Lea Lane has countless (collectables/collectibles) from her travels around the world.

5. There is a (concensus/consensus) that Dcvdickens' "Dr. Seuss post" is a masterpiece.

6. Shaggylocks' Coronet videos teach us to behave (conscienciously/conscientiously). 

7. Did Floyd Elliot write "When Bigs Fly" in a state of (drunkeness/drunkenness)?

8. Sheldon once killed a carnivorous llama with a (dumbell/dumbbell).  

9. Lisa Kern was (embarassed/embarrassed) by the vomiting incident at the restaurant.

10. 1IMom's poetry is (exhilarating/exhilerating).

11. O'Really?'s wit (excedes/exceeds) that of most mortals.

12. Monsieur Chariot was (harassed/harrassed) by Chloe in the Whole Foods store.  

13. Cartouche is (indispensable/indispensible) to the spirit of community at OS.

14. Mr. Mustard always shows good (judgment/judgement).

15. Myriad has several (mementos/momentos) of her trip to Italy.

16. For Stellaa, politics is more than a (pastime/passtime).

17. Gracielou is (perseverant/perseverent) in her refusal to raise grandbabies.

18. Sally Swift's visit to France (preceded/preceeded) her visit to Italy.

19. (Sargeant/Sergeant) Mom wrote "Old Pictures and Wartime Memories."

20. No one will (supercede/supersede) Harry Homeless as connoisseur of Japanese culture.  

 

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Comments

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accommodates, bellwether, cemetery, collectibles, consensus, conscientiously, drunkenness, dumbbell, embarrassed, exhilarating, exceeds, harassed, indispensable, judgment, mementos, pastime, perseverant, preceded, sergeant, supersede
I don't care what anyone says, you are one clever dud.
I mean, dude.
;-)
It's nice the way you gave everyone a plug. Of course I got ALL the words right because I are an editor. HB
Good exercise. I have to say that after years of relying on spellcheck, my spelling mojo is way off. It is embarrassing and frustrating. It might have to do with pending menopause as well. Maybe B12 will help? ~sih~
Glad I'm not on the list. That's because I'm perfect. As for O'Really? I've noticed that sher's seriously spelling-challenged.

Excelent peece, Stev. R
i got 'em all right. surly checked my paper. really.


-r- for something i'm good at.
Oh, I loved this. I was a spelling bee champ in my youth, and it comes naturally to me, what fun!

Now do one about misused words, as in "He flaunted the rules"...instead of "He flouted the rules"! Also..."cite" and "site"; "bated" and "baited". OUCH...these words are all used incorrectly more often than not.
Oy! Thank god for spellcheck and auto-correct.

I'm sorry to hear about your teacher.
Steve, this is a very fun post. Are you going to do weekly covers?

Hope
I pay thousands of monkeys to type all day and the stuff they do is damn near Shakespearean but their spelling leaves a lot to be desired.
What Steve Blevins said. And I didn't even have to copy off your answers. Thank you for this wonderful service. I just wish you would have added "restaurateur"...;) xoxo EP if I ever read one...
I got judgment wrong! (Thank you) ~R~
1_Mom needs to write more often or she'll be ex-hilarious.

(thumbified because I create words that look wrong but feel right in your naughty places.)
As spellers you and Cartouche are indiscrete (correct spelling). Read the definition please, Steve.
Every time you mangle a word, an English teacher dies.
I relaly htae ginagitc psots on splelnig.
Rtaed aynawy.
100% for me, though I'll admit I tossed a coin for indispensable.

Yekdeli, I already wrote about that two weeks ago. See "Eclectic seizures and ad homonyms, a love romp." Many of the eggcorns I featured are frequently on display by OS writers.

Steve, you do realize you broke a rule for singular possessive of a last name ending in the letter "s." Twice. Just pointing it out in a spirit of helpful nitpicking.
Oh, and for those who don't believe me, I don't typically consider Hollywood the place to go for spelling/punctuation expertise, but try googling "Bridget Jones' Diary" and you'll see that Google corrects it for you.
This comment is dedicated to my 6th through 9th grade English teachers, all of whom rolled their eyes and gave up trying to teach me proper spelling techniques. I also blame that early Anglo-Saxon who thought that the plural of "moose" should also be "moose." Lazy bastard.

Raise a glass to Dr. van Hamersveld and to all of the great teachers we are lucky enough to encounter.
hmmm... with my visual perceptive disorder I read perseverant and peversant and wonder what the heck you were talking about!
I'm going to invoke my own ammendment here, and be quiet rather than prove how much of a dumbell (dumbbell? dumb-bell?) I am.
: )

Thankyou-Mister-Blevinsssss (in collective classroom accentato)
You only found one in mine? C'mon, I am a gold mine.
This is a great educational post, but I'm pretty sure you misspelled Blevans.
Aren't we getting a bit too picky about spelling and punctuation in a medium that revels in breaking all the rules of grammatical etiquette and adds useless semi-colons and brackets to the end of every sentence/paragraph? "Supercede", by the way, has been an acceptable alternate spelling of its more correct cousin since the 16th Century.
My dad used to give us spelling quizzes every night at dinner, he found great joy in stumping us on words like judgment and pastime. I still break out in a small sweat when I have to spell certain words.
Very clever and timely post, Steve. Sorry about your teacher.
I am prowd I got them right and that you included my work as an example, but find it veeerrry interesting you chose the post with probably the most sex content. Prevert!
O.K. Doctor. Read this sentence slowly outloud: "I put a stanp on the envelope."
Uh-huh.
Thought so. You may be a good speller but I bet I just made you into a funny sounding talker.
that is always been a weakness of mine; speling
i never did it wel
i am not stupit
my brian works differently
One of my all time favorite books, that debunks so much of the orthodoxy of the grammar and spelling police is June Casagrande's, Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies. What she does in the book is go through our current spelling and grammar Bibles and points out the conflicts.

In truth, there is little orthodoxy left , despite what Gordon, our in house self proclaimed grammarian thinks.

I think it's time that we created a jobs program for copy editors. I admit I do not have a biological, intellectual or aesthetic inclination to pursue perfect grammar or spelling.
My contribution:

Hoard = (I hoard wealth)
Horde = (I hoard my horde's wealth)
Whored = (I whored for my horde's hoarded wealth)

(you'll thank me later)
With a Scottish father and an English teacher mother, I was fuched. In fact, I got accused of plagiarism at my Ivy League school because I used British spellings for some words. "If this isn't plagiarized, it's an A paper." It wasn't plagiarized, but the bastard still gave me a C, after I spent a half hour in his office answering questions on my thesis. I think he was mad at me for never, ever attending his class.
I thought cemetary was an acceptable option. I thought about it when I wrote my mafia piece, which features a cemetary. Should mafia be capitalized? Capitol post, Mr. Blevins.
I was on the wrong page when I corrected Gary Justis' to Justis's. Now I see. A or B. Got a few wrong which is why I keep a dictionerry open when I write. (Raited)
As a former editor, I still have eyes that water when they encounter typos/misspellings. Rated!
A clever tribune to your teacher!
Steve, I love your sense of (humor/humour) on both sides of the border.
HA! I'm a cheater, I just scrolled down for the answers :D

but I did notice that you didn't do that possessive s's that is required of names ending in s...
For once I am not jealousing...but I think typos increase with age...just saying.

Sorry about your English teacher...I'm afraid to ask about my favorite ones.

R
My speling seems to get worse with age, and I am easily confused by whether or not there are double leters in certain words. I mised embarrassed. And maybe a couple others that I don't want to admit.
I want to thank you high school English teacher, too. Clearly, she was a gem.
SHOOT!!!

I want to thank YOUR high school English teacher, too.

for the love of....
Mr. Mustard does not always show good (judgment/judgement). He sleeps in the park and keeps a ten bob note up his nose.
No mistakes at all! Because I studied spelling like crazy at the teaching training programme... well: no mistakes means in this case that I recognize which word is well spelt when written; it doesn´t mean that I will spell it correctly out of thin air.... my English must be going rusty, sigh... my old and strict English teachers will have nightmares tonight and they won´t know why...
Lovely post, rated!
accomodates, bellwether, cemetery, collectibles, consensus, conscientiously, drunkenness, dumbbell, embarrassed, exhilarating, exceeds, harassed, indispensable, judgment, mementos.. pastime, perserverant, preceded, sergeant, supersede ?????
Well shit! I missed two, and I used to be the go-to guy for spelling bees:(
Very very very clever as always.
I'm always getting 'cemetery' wrong and having to go back and do over. And does that beg the question of why I'm writing the word 'cemetery' often. Yes. Yes, it does.
According to Webster, "judgement" is a varient spelling for "judgment." Not the popular spelling, but not wrong, either.

So that I don't sound like a smarty-pants, I was thrown by a number of these, and I consider myself a good speller!

I remember seeing a commercial once for a rerun of "Alien Resurrection" and the word "Exhilerating!" went across the TV screen. I totally freaked.

Here's a spelling/usage peeve of mine: The word "importantly" has come into common usage as a sentence modifier when actually the word "important" should be used, as in, "More imporant(ly), the case never went to trial."

And why do people say, "AN historic event"? We don't say, "AN history lesson." We should only use "an" when the "h" is silent, right?...as in, "she's an honor roll student." Makes me nuts, but again, common usage has made it acceptable.

Oh, and for years, I spelled "definitely" as "definately." Was simply a mental block.

Great post! Your teacher would be proud.
You are clever/clevar!
Okay - how fun was this post??? Loved it. Loved it. Loved it!
Boy, we could stand this once a week. I have bad judgement, I mean judgment, too.
Oh, that was fun! And I only missed a few that I always miss...
wow, man. i didnt think i could really be stumped twice in a row, let alone roughly 20 times. nice job.
I myself was quite saddened to hear, upon reaching the age when it was time to get myself a job (12, when I realized I needed to escape home) that there was really no sort of career available to one who could spell really well. So I ended up in accounting with delusions of writing, but if it were possible, I'd be a Spelling Professional.
Aunty's the type to get premise, penis, pernicious and precious interchanged. Thanks to your post, I'll be extra puntilious going forward.
You are a funny guy...great post. Rated
Enjoyed this post. And on the nitpicking of the s' vs s's, I tend to agree with CR. However, I wonder about the pronunciation of the Justis name, and the application Chicago Style. If the second syllable sounds like "eez," as we often say it in the south, then Chicago advises an omission of the second "s." So I am asking Gary, does the second syllable in your last name sound like an s or a z ? And about Bridget Jones' (Jones's) Diary, as well as your two examples Justis and Shaggylocks, if you are using The Associated Press Stylebook, you are following the recommendation that the possessive of proper names ending in an "s" be formed by adding the apostrophe only. Yet, Chicago would have you use the s's. I like to study these types of things, but today find it too confusing. I am going back to the couch to continue my recuperation! More tea, please. zzzzz
I am a professional writer. I am not aloud to proofread, if you catch my meaning.
I never misspell anything...they are simply typos.
I think I would have gotten MOST of them, but supersede would and preceded would have tripped me up. Cool post.
My eighth grade English teacher--a rosy-nosed alcoholic who also coached the football team to state twice--had us write sentences using lists of difficult to spell and odd vocabulary words. Thanks to Mr. Bowe I am a nearly flawless speller, and I got every word on your quiz right. He was wonderful.
I got 100%!! What did I win?

Spell check has actually helped me with a few of these that I used to always misspell but after having MS Word correct me so many times, I've finally learned the right way.
Blevins you are killing me. No more spelling tests- no! no! Knowing the meaning of words I'm good at, spelling? my brain looks at it and if it's anywhere even close, doesn't bother to register a disturbance. Must be a wiring issue.
I can neither spell nor type. If it wasn't for Spell Check, the only thing I'd be qualified for is one of those infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters randomizing Shakespeare.
Steve, I am most seriously displeased with the message you sent me last night! :) I thought you were a gentleman! :)

I printed it in my comments section today! So there!

Hope
Not being on the list, I will be on the comments.

Once again, nice post.
Writers ought to be careful even as one gambits loss of epiphany atwix 'verisimilitude' and say, 'Missisippi'; as an example, my firstdraft of this comment was better than this (I knew I got 'oevure') but sorta blew it away as I typed on Farelex Online Dictionary and my own vivacities, subsequently loosing paradoxical acuity. Another bare-assed know it all between the devil and the deep blue sea, methinks, that is where the fun is.

Enigmatic enui.

Sorry to have learned of your teacher's death.