KingBear
Hooligan
Which brings up a good point. Communication is a two-way street requiring effort to understand as well as to be understood.
I believe I am a reasonably articulate person when I write, but when I speak I often find myself stammering or halting while I search for the right words to express my thoughts. Some people like to make others look foolish by deliberately misunderstanding them, playing dumb, showing impatience or confusion, or restating a comment back as, "oh, you mean blah blah blah..." Yes, that is exactly what I mean and you obviously understand me, so why are you being such an asshole? I'm guilty of it myself from time to time. I recall expressing regrets that a business correspondent's medical practice was failing, but what did that have to do with the situation at hand? (He had repeatedly written that he was running out of "patients.")
I also dislike when people pretend not to understand common, though perhaps not technically correct phrases or expressions. If you don't understand the use of colloquialisms then you are the one with the communication problem or, more likely, simply not a very gracious individual. I love to use slang phrases for humor or emphasis. If you don't get it then the joke is on you.
We all fall prey to what I like to call the "Curse of the 'Send' button." Those are the errors we discover the moment we have submitted or sent a message. Sometimes I wish it worked more like the "Delete" button, with a pop-up message reading something like, "Are you sure you want to send this? It might make you look like an idiot."
And while I am on a roll, please allow for this gentle reminder. Italics are for emphasis, CAPS ARE FOR SHOUTING! Do learn the difference and use accordingly.
There is no more definitive indicator of intelligence and education than the way we write. Society is much more forgiving of the words we speak than those we present in writing, presumably because the written word can be seen and edited before publishing. I like to think we are all friends here and we treat posts as we would any casual conversation, but we might do well to pay a bit more attention, if for no other reason than to maintain good habits. For when it really matters.
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