[WikiEN-l] On spelling conventions

[Andrew Gray]

I ran across this little anecdote today, buried in a biography of a
moderately-unknown British general of the Second World War. It may
amuse people, given the amount of time and stress we put into caring
about The Correct Spellings and the equal amount of time and stress we
put into caring about Not Antagonising People Over Them.

"Churchill failed to understand the delicate balancing act involved in
running an Allied staff. Had he fully appreciated the complete fusion
of staff and working relationships which Wilson had managed to achieve
he would not have objected, as he did in one of the many telegrams he
sent to Wilson, to the spelling of the word 'theater' rather than
'theatre' sent out from Allied Forces HQ."

- Michael Dewar

One can draw two morals from this:

a) If you get worked up over spelling differences, you're in good
company, Churchill did too.

b) Even Churchill ought to have remembered when to keep quiet for the
good of consensus, so nyah.

;-)

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk