While looking for my password, I found this

Remember, though box
In the plural makes boxes
The plural of ox
Should be oxen, not oxes.
And remember, though fleece
In the plural is fleeces
That the plural of goose
Aren't gooses nor geeces.
And remember, though house
In the plural is houses
The plural of mouse
Should be mice, not mouses.
All of which goes to prove
That grammar a farce is
For where is the plural
Of rum and molasses.
Ohio Farmer, 8(3):23 Jan. 15, 1859

Here’s my problem . . .

Please! It's o-p-h-t-h-a-l-m-o-l-o-g-i-s-t

"Moisturizers are important for the skin around the eyes, which contains no oil glands. Ms. Cryer uses two eye creams, a day cream that offers sun protection and a night cream without the "extra chemicals" of sunscreen. In the winter, Ms. Cryer even applies a little extra eye cream in midafternoon to "refresh" the skin. She sticks to "opthalmologist-tested" moisturizers that won't irritate the eyes themselves."

Today's Wall Street Journal, article by Cheryl Lu-Lien

Now that ophthalmologist Rand Paul is heading for the Senate, maybe reporters will start getting this one right.

"Dr. Paul completed a general surgery internship at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta and completed his residency in ophthalmology at Duke University Medical Center. Upon completion of his training in 1993, Dr. Paul moved to Bowling Green, Ken., and began his ophthalmology practice.

In 1995, Dr. Paul founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic, an organization that provides eye exams and surgery to needy families and individuals. He has also provided free eye surgery to children from around the world through the Children of the Americas Program." Becker's ASC Review.

Ophthalmologist

On October 17 I notified the CMS that it had misspelled ophthalmologist on the web page about glaucoma. No one replied, and it hasn't been corrected as of today (October 27, 2010). I guess they are too busy planning the next Obamacare bill.

https://www.cms.gov/GlaucomaScreening/

Odd things our government does

Did you know that African Americans are at a higher risk for glaucoma than whites, Asians or Hispanics? And did you know the government includes them in Medicare for glaucoma screening at age 50, but not the rest of us, even though anyone can get glaucoma, and in numbers, more whites are affected than blacks? Oh well. I was listening to a public service announcement on the radio this morning and almost couldn't believe my ears. So I looked it up--several times.

Also on the page where I was reading about this, ophthalmologist was misspelled. So I searched through the documents until I found a contact link--almost everything was phone numbers, even though I was using the web--until I finally found something, so I wrote:

You have misspelled ophthalmologist at a page on glaucoma screening https://www.cms.gov/GlaucomaScreening/ The phth only appears in a few words in English, but on a government web site, it should be spelled correctly.

Omaha and Chickadee

The spell-check in my Outlook e-mail program wants to change Huckabee to Chickadee and Obama to Omaha.

3616

The new blogger wp template

Because I have 10 blogs, I was one of the last in cyberspace to migrate to the new blogger, but in general I've been pleased. This past week I've lost a few (fabulous, of course) posts even when saving in draft, but photos are way easier and smoother to load. One problem I noticed was that even on the blogs where I didn't have a photo, it turned up, so I had to go into the template and look for the code and delete it. But yesterday, much to my horror, I found out something I didn't know. I DO run the spell check--although it is fairly weak, and doesn't even recognize the word "blog." However, I learned that unlike the old format, it doesn't make the correction unless you go back to the top and click on "resume editing". Yesterday I tried 4 or 5 times to correct "metasticize" to "metastasize". The red changed to green (isn't that cute), but I didn't click on "resume editing," so when I hit "publish," nothing changed. Usually I don't go back and reread if it's already been up for awhile before I notice a misspelled word, so I wonder now how many misspellings I have in old blogs.

Yes, it matters! At least to me.