......"written language as an art form"..... I think that says it all. The written English language as we know it in all its 'proper' forms is an evolving art. Just as hand writting is a dying art form. Soon the pencil will be a museum item. I don't know about kids in your area but here there are very few who can write in scipt form. They all print. It really bugged me when my son hit the age when I remembered moving on from print to script writing. I even won a penmenship award for my writing. My dad made us practise our hand writing every night for an hour. It was a high priority in that time. Now it isn't. Hand writing is a dying art. It is what it is.

I appreciate how some changes in our culture can trigger reactions. Change is hard and when one has a particular interest in preserving a particular practise it is even harder to accept the change let alone make the adjustment.

As a Canadian it really bugs me how much pressure is being put on Canadian-British English to conform to American English. I will miss the placement of the 'u' and 'e' as they are increasingly being dropped from our language useage. For example.... 'I looked in the catalogue for my favourite coloured pyjamas and then asked my mum to send them a cheque to pay for them.'

My pet peeve are cell phones period. Butchered language useage aside I am having a real hard time adjusting to every second person on the street, in the restaurant, on the bus.... you name it..... people everywhere babbling their private business for all to hear. Cutting off a face to face conversation to answer their cell phone. Texting every step they take and endlessing checking for messages.

I am hugely triggered...... I mean it can send me over the edge to the point that I feel dizzy when a cell phone rings or buzzs or plays music. I am hypersensitive to sounds and the constant noise from people's cell phones drives me batty. Literally. Its a cultural shift and while it doesn't work for me it is what it is. I need ear plugs to leave my home now a days.

opps.... off topic.... my bad.