Pages

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

The Queen and a stand on spelling

QE2 card catalog card

My bathroom is home to a smattering of Queen Elizabeth II paraphernalia. And I've been pondering a quilt using library card catalog cards as blocks. Lo and behold, what did I find in the scrap pile at the library yesterday but cards about the Queen herself? I swiftly snagged the author and subject cards for Lilibet: An Intimate Portrait of Elizabeth II. Bibliographic details and QE2—two of my more peculiar interests merging beautifully.

I saw The Queen this weekend, too. The more I digest it, the better I think it was. And Helen Mirren as a clopping, little old lady of a queen was superb.

All this talk of Her Majesty leads me to something I've been mulling over for a while. I live in America, but I'm also Canadian and have spent much of my life in the UK. I (mostly) grew up using American spellings, but I often feel more at home in a British—or loosely, Commonwealth—style. In general, I adapt the style to the audience, but on the Internet, where are the lines drawn? Need I broadcast American language from my own little corner of the web? I daresay I needn't. So from here forwards, I shall spell things here however I like—and I will likely like British spellings. Perhaps it will look affected (much like the sentence 'I daresay I needn't'), but I think of it as a personal solace from being compelled to use American English the rest of the day. Expect cheques, programmes, colours, and group nouns conjugated as plurals in future. Cheers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I may have to stop reading, lest my eyes bleed to death with your "forwards" and "ou"s and the like.