Ouch

You know, I went to Catholic schools through 12th grade and a great emphasis was placed on writing, spelling, punctuation, grammar. We always thought we were better than the poor kids at the public school two blocks away, who obviously didn't have nearly as good instruction as we had (I wonder who fostered that ridiculous notion in our heads!)

But I fancy myself at least somewhat literate and so when I read something like this I just cringe:

sory but this just freaks me out! dnt read? this(cuz it really wrks). u will gt kissd on the nearest frieday by the love of ur life. 2mara wll b the bst day of ur life however if you dnt post ths comment 2 at least 3 vids u will die withn 2 days nw uv startd readn this dnt stp this is so scary snd ths ovr 2 5 vids in 143 mins

That appeared on a video on You Tube. I'm so accustomed to horrendous grammar on You Tube I hardly notice it any more, but this one seemed to exceed the worst I'd seen.

Where you really find bad grammar, spelling and punctuation is when you come up against arguments about homosexuality. I swear that all the homophobes never made it past 3rd grade...which may explain something right there.

Ellen and Shelly were interviewed about ads which have been appearing in papers around the state this week. They say things like "LOST: My right to marry the person I love. If you're not using yours, please contact me..." and variations on that theme. The interview was posted on the Internet, but the link doesn't work any more.

It has, of course, resulted in the usual firestorm and the usual cringe-worthy grammar.

As a christian, the Bible is against gay practicing but because those involved cannot change, God has given them a reprobate mind and the end for such people is distruction to hell. Because from the beginning, God greated male and female and said in Genesis chapter 2 verse 24 that a man will leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife Eve and not Adam to Adam.

It's sad to say that in God's ceation that men and woman are the top best things intended for that process to be successful. Now the issue of [profane]sexuals getting married is one that boggles the mind. Why does the rest of us in this creation have to endure the sick minds of other's trying to further corrupt the intentions of God by saying he made an mistake on them.No one has ever been born gay

To piggyback on the last statement nor will the God we all cliam to believe in will make you that why than to kill you for practicing that lifestyle. Aminals don't practice it,it's confusion so why should we accept something so confusioning,so vile an act til God calls you dogs and depicts that act as an abomnation. This world should study the history of the [profane]sexual acts. Every society dyed.

(I'm imagining the rainbow colors of all those societies that "dyed" !!)

With the seeming increase in acceptance of bad grammar and abominal spelling, it makes me wonder if I lived through the end of the "golden days" of the English language.

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The fire continues to rage in Santa Barbara. I heard from our friends Dick and Gerry, who live kind of at the base of the hills, saying they were just fine...then this morning their daughter posted a message on Facebook that they had been evacuated during the middle of the night.

Walt called this morning to say that they had received a reverse 911 call at the Assisted Living facility that they should be ready to evacuate and that if they had to evacuate his mother she would have to move to a gymnasium at UC Santa Barbara rather than to his sister's home because all the medical stuff would be at the gym.

Tom posted a messsage on Facebook tonight they couldn't take the smoke any more and were packing up and moving out of town for a bit.

I tried to call both Walt and his sister tonight to find out if Alice had been evacuated, but couldn't reach either of them.

The fire update page I found said that some 30,000 people had been evacuated and nearly that many were on the notification list of people who should be ready to evacuate.

As of 7 p.m. Friday, 8,600 acres were destroyed, 80 structures destroyed, 3,500 residences and 100 commercial properties are threatened.

The last I heard, the fire was only 10% contained, so I think there is a long way to go before anybody is going to breathe comfortably again.

Taken by my friend Roy, who is the music
director at the old Mission Santa Barbara