Please, folks, don't take anything I'm saying as deathly somber or as intended to put others down.

Tyke, ("Oh and please don't change any of the spellings or grammar in any songs that I may or may not post! ...Oh and if you hear me singing a song please don't tell me that I'm singing the wrong tune or the wrong words...") Wow! Where to begin? First, how dare you tell me not to correct spelling a song that you did NOT post? : ) Next, there are some errors that are clearly errors, not alternative versions of a song. "Whose Sorry Now?" would be an example. If you're the songwriter, I'll defer to your decision about lyrics, even if there are obvious spelling errors. But if it is a published song, deviations from the published form are fair game for correction, especially when they are obviously typos and misspellings. (If you post "Wildwood Flour," and you have not changed anything except that one word, I would assume it's a mistake. If the lyrics you post are a parody, that's different.) It's Max's choice, of course, whether to make the corrections for the DT. But a lot of the time, lyrics posted here look like they were written by e e cummings -- no caps, no punctuation at all, etc. If it was Bob Dylan who wrote them, not e e cummings, why the heck should they not be properly spelled and punctuated? As someone -- Amos, I think -- posted, there is a difference between colloquialisms or poetic license and just plain spelling and punctuation errors. As for changing the lyrics to a song (the folk process?), if it is a non-trad song, I prefer that the alteration of the lyrics be acknowledged. I have done this myself, e.g., when I change a song from a male to a female perspective.

Folks, which insult is worse: "nitpicking linguistic pedant" or "hypersensitive, overly defensive illiterate uninterested in self-improvement?" I'm not fond of either tendency, but we pedants would probably lighten up if the 'linguistically challenged' didn't take it as a personal attack every time someone pointed out an error, even in a formal publication.

Little Hawk, You go, dude! Right on, Giok (Jock)! And, what Lady Penelope said, too! (Loved the Robin Hood sentence! How about, "She was on her bicycle, peddling her ass off?" )

To Spaw, Guest, and some of you others who say it is only communication that counts, not spelling, grammar, and punctuation, I say, along with Wolfgang, you are partly right. Communication is the goal. Spelling, grammar, etc., are only the tools. Trouble is, the meaning can easily get lost in the spelling and grammar errors. E.g, Guest, when you wrote "get passed" instead of "get past," above, I had to re-read the sentence two or three times to figure out what you meant. Once I realized the word was "past," it did not matter that it was misspelled, but I did not recognize the word at first. Wolfgang, your views posted in the "Proofresding" thread are right to the point! Sometimes a spelling error does cause lots of problems!

Genie