Hi to all lurky or semi-lurky types who have become unlurky, including SA and BridgetS.

(There are a lot of real names on here. I've been using my handle for over ten years, so thought I should use it here for ease of cross-recognition. I briefly dropped the 'in-Training' bit since I qualified as a teacher, but it returns now that I am a fledgling academic. Will have to decide whether it goes away post-MA, or stays around to encourage me towards that elusive PhD.)

I have not visited anyone here, being too much of a newcomer - which is a bit sad! I have many friends from other Buffy-centric places, who I appreciate muchly, so I'm loving the stories of how you all met.

Seriously? I bow down...all the way down...to your courage.

Well, I didn't know I was dyslexic until really late. I knew I was dyspraxic (I think in the US that's called non-verbal learning disability), but I had never got round to formal testing. Then they tested me before I started my M.A., and said I was dyslexic too. Made a whole lot of sense, especially of how slowly I read and how tired it makes me, and how I can't structure essays (I have software that does that for me now!), and my eternal procrastination habits, etc etc etc. But the dyspraxia is my real killer. It made me terrified of maths. I still avoid statistics, although they would help my research. They are evil and wrong and scary.

I think the real-name thing was a TT relic, though I'm not sure. I kind of wish I used a better psued now, but it is what it is.

I have a pretty standard version of dysgraphia and a minor variation on dyslexia, which is really deeply fun given how much my disciplines incorporate reading and writing. But I learned compensation tools really early on, so that even though 3 out of five times I make errors when I type or write, I go back and read to auto-correct and usually can catch them. When I don't, well, someone usually tells me. The dysgraphia is more frustrating than the dyslexia, though. Not being able to accurately transcribe what I'm thinking drives me insane every single day.

and the governership of Illinois.

I love that this is included in your list. I figure we'll adopt the metric system around the time we get flying cars.

The strongest argument I heard for using the serial comma is that it gives items in a series equal weight.

I think the "and" gives the last item quite enough weight. Nobody else gets an "and."

Of course, the loss of various extra letters mostly came from Noah Webster, who was deliberately trying to create a leaner and specifically American English. You gotta love the godlike power of the early dictionary makers.

The retention of feet and inches mainly shows that there are some things you have to declare by fiat, because public opinion is generally an ass. These days, proposing the metric system would be branded as socialist and dangerously French. Also, didn't Hitler use the metric system?

Hello all former lurkers, of all political flavors!

I haven't had any buffistae stay with me, unless you count Amyth falling asleep on my couch. Now that I have an apartment with a guest room that should change. I do live right next door to amyth, which is lovely, as well as near smonster and within partying distance of amych and darth. Both meara and SA have been by, but I believe they've always stayed with amyth and/or smonster.

I've gone by Cincinnati a number of times, without ever visiting, as I was always traveling with my parents on our way to Michigan. They were old and didn't really get the whole invisible internet friends thing. However, I'll be heading up to MI by myself in the future, and one of those times I'll suck it up for the drive through Ohio so I can make a Cinci stop, if the Ohioistas don't mind.

one of those times I'll suck it up for the drive through Ohio so I can make a Cinci stop, if the Ohioistas don't mind.

Mind?? On the contrary -- you'd better stop!

Since I can't match numbers on with whom I've stayed, or who has stayed with me, I won't make a list.

I will add, however, for the lurkers' benefit, that I turned my keys over to smonster to stay in my apartment while I was away without every having met her face-to-face.

Since I can't match numbers on with whom I've stayed, or who has stayed with me, I won't make a list.

But you have a really cute puppy, and (cover Sass's ears) now an even cuter little girl who I really need to meet soon, so you don't need a list.

You guys have no idea how long it took me to realize that muffuletta [link] isn't a mofletta [link] Seriously. I was wondering who puts olives on a mofletta.

ION, you made me think long and hard about serial comma, and asking other people about it. Those other people in my life looked at me like I'm craxy. While I still don't know my position about it in English (but I tend to be in favor of it), I hardly think it's necessary in Hebrew. The languages just balances themselves different, and use some punctuation marks differently, you know? In Hebrew, for instance, a signal quotation mark is used to mark acronyms before the last letter of the word.

As for fondness for ellipsis... you're kidding me, right?

The only Buffista I stayed with, of course, was Nilly. That happened several times. Made of win, darlings, made of win: our Nilly ALWAYS have ice cream in her fridge. On the other hand, I missed the opportunity to see most American Buffistas by starting reading b.org two months after I got back from my great-overseas journey to the U.S..

You gotta love the godlike power of the early dictionary makers.

Trivia tidbit: the way that 19th century schoolteachers had the students drill in spelling affected how Americans pronounce words, tending to use all of the syllables ("sec-re-ta-ry" instead of "sec-re-try", for example). The way students used to take spelling tests was by recitation, not writing (very little paper meant that most things were oral instead of written), and they would break the word down by syllable.

"Secretary: s-e-c, sec, r-e, re, secre, t-a, ta, secreta, r-y, ry, secretary!"

(Thank you, Laura Ingalls Wilder, for that little demonstration of teaching methods.)