An apologia for Jibberish, or is it gibberish?

010413On of my problems on the blog is that I often “commit typos.” That is to say, I am lousy at proof reading my own material. A number of you send me little corregida, for which I am grateful. I do read over what I have wrote, but I read right past my errors and don see them at all. Yet this phenomenon is common in that when reading we often adjust see right past some of the most glaring of errors.

Consider the following passage:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

Did you get all that? I’ll bet you did, just fine. I don’t think I missed a point, every word made perfect sense to me, grammatical and lexical nightmare that it was. The nonsense makes perfect sense. But allow this little exercise to explain to you that what I write makes perfect sense to me, even if it crosses your eyes.

An interesting computer thing happened when typing this post too, my spell checker just plain gave up. After the first five or so misspelled word, it just stopped underlining in red. Proof that if you tell a lie long enough, even spell checker will believe you.

And yet I want to remind you that for God, nothing unavenged will remain. My only concern, does this include blog edits? Does God permit alternate spellings and doe she grade on a curve? Will I spend time in purgatory for my unforced editing errors? Please consider praying for me when I die. In the meantime, keep those edits coming.

Here is my favorite jibberish (or is it gibberish) interview.

13 Replies to “An apologia for Jibberish, or is it gibberish?”

  1. ” Does God permit alternate spellings and * does He * grade on a curve…”

    🙂

  2. Dear Msgr,
    You have written above:-
    “I do read over what I have wrote,”
    Unfortunately, the correct grammar is that you should have said:-
    “I do read over what I have written

  3. Indeed – we all do this, especially in today’s world of often excessive communication (“excessive” from the perspective of a limited human capacity for processing all that is communicated and worthy of receiving.)

    You stated, “…every word made perfect sense to me…”

    That’s how I thought when I was a toddler who could not form actual words but who knew exactly what I was thinking and thought I was saying. It is frustrating to think you are communicating very well when the recipient is not letting on that they are not actually understanding your words.

    And so likewise, if a human is thinking in supernatural ways but only has natural ways of communicating, how frustrating that can be!

  4. This made me laugh! Who hasn’t made tpyos?! It amazes me that you are able to consistently post lengthy, thoughtful posts each day, as well as respond to your readers. That’s a feat in itseld for bloggers!!

  5. It’s always been interesting to me how some people have nothing better to do with their time than to find fault with others. I challenge them to pray before opening their mouths; at least then they will be giving their thoughts a worthy purpose.

  6. I always find my own errors more amusing than everyone else’s for some reason.

  7. The lesson of spell checker is that you should make more mistakes. Then the nit-pickers will get tired and just accept it.

  8. Monsignor, some words of advice vis a vis spell checkers. They are fallible! Thanks to the good Dominicans. the Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of St. Joseph, who educated me from grades 1 through 12, I have never had to rely on automated spell checkers ;- )

    Thank you for your EXCELLENT postings, albeit with typos.

  9. I could readily read the gibberish paragraph with each word “sandwiched” by the proper first and last letters of each word in place. This fact led me to recall several principles of learning: the principles of primacy and recency, i.e., first and last impressions are best remembered. So this principle is true both with words…and with entire lectures! The “meat” of the lecture is important, but it can be best remembered by the opening and closing statements, the “sandwich breads.”

  10. Each day I turn to the dictionary at http://www.catholicreference.net/ to view a featured word or term, chosen at random. Here’s the one selected by divine providence for me today. Ha!
    THEOLGOCIAL TRUTH
    The explanation of some historical event as having occurred through the miraculous intervention of God.

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