Something that annoys me is when I'm reading a book, and I can tell the publisher has fired the proofreaders because words are misspelled all over the book. Oh, they're spelled correctly..."their," "they're" and "there" (for example) are all correct spellings, but misspellings when the wrong one is used. I see a lot of books these days like that, and what it tells me is, the publisher uses spellcheck to edit the book, and we all know spellcheck knows how to make sure you're using the correct spelling of the word in the right context, right?

Some of you have been talking about how education and speech has changed. This is sort of on topic, but not exactly: I've been going back to college (I will be going again in the fall), and I notice a lot of students addressing professors by their first names. I was taught you always refer to them as "Professor [last name]." I hesitate to call a professor by their first name, because I don't want them to think I'm being disrespectful.

And there's another thing I do, and a lot of us do: Using "their" instead of "his" or "her". That last sentence should read: "I hesitate to call a professor by his first name, because I don't want him to think I'm being disrespectful."

Someone brought up gender neutral terms. I'm all for them. It's about equality. I use "his" and "her" when a gendered pronoun is called for and I don't know the gender of the subject. Sometimes I say, "his or her," but usually, I choose one or the other, because it's clumsy to read, "He or she went to the party, but he or she didn't drink alcohol."

I just spotted another one that gets me: "Regime" vs. "Regimen."

Regime:

a : mode of rule or management
b : a form of government <a socialist regime>
c : a government in power
d : a period of rule

Regimen:

a : a systematic plan (as of diet, therapy, or medication) especially when designed to improve and maintain the health of a patient
b : a regular course of action and especially of strenuous training <the daily regimen of athletes