Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxn.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!ihuxn!res From: res@ihuxn.UUCP (Rich Strebendt) Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.jokes Subject: Re: Spelling Reform Message-ID: <852@ihuxn.UUCP> Date: Thu, 11-Oct-84 21:51:45 EDT Article-I.D.: ihuxn.852 Posted: Thu Oct 11 21:51:45 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 13-Oct-84 06:19:04 EDT References: <179@scc.UUCP> <175@cybvax0.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 36 | > [Don Steiny] | > In a letter to 'The Economist' in Readers Digest (ages ago), | > M.J.Shields, of Jarrow, England, points out that George Bernard | > Shaw, among others, urged spelling reform, suggesting that one | > letter be altered or deleted each year, thus giving the populace | > time to absorb the change... | | There was a classic short story (I believe it was in an Astounding anthology) | entitled "Meihem in Ce Klasrum" along the same lines, but longer and thus | easier to follow. I've long wanted to have a xerox of it.... "Meihem in Ce Klasrum" was reprinted in the book "A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown and other essays for a scientific age" edited by Robert A. Baker (Prentice-Hall, 1959). The original, written by Dolton Edwards, was, according to the credits in aSAoaSEG, published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1946. If you can still get your hands on it, aSAoaSEG is an interesting sampler of scientific and engineering humor. My personal favorites from this small volume (192 pages) include "The Chaostron" - design of a completely random computer which was to learn to solve problems, rather than be programed. "The Postal System Input Buffer Device" - an instruction manual for the use of a mailbox. "Mathmanship" - A classic. Instructions on how to write a technical paper in such a way as to force the reader to "... concede his mental inferiority to the author." Rich Strebendt ...!ihnp4!ihuxn!res