Hope this thread ain't getting too old to respond to. Luv the silliness of the English language. Keep in mind almost anything goes...eventually. People start misusing words, then those words enter the vernacular, and finally become accepted as correct. One notable exception, however, is the word I used in the first sentence--ain't. It's been around a hell of a long time, but has never achieved "accepted" status. No idea why. Anyhow, more handsome or handsomer are definitely both acceptable in speaking--less certain of the written word. I agree with Orrin--handsomer seems odd, even though it's "correct". It's like the usual response to "Who's there?" is usually "Me" or "It's me" rather than "It is I". Yet I is correct in this place. That & which drive me nuts, although people tend to use "that" in sentences where it's not really necessary. For example, the following sentence: "It seems possible 'that' we could do something about the problem" could just as easily be written "It seems possible we could do something about the problem". The first sentence means the same as the second, but with four more letters and a space in it--more typing needed to convey no additional information. Rob P.S. Hotter is good. I also like hunkier. P.P.S. I vote for rookie.

I wish this forum had the ability to use those simple enhancements. Sometimes I want to italicize or underline. I've tried to learn it but my brain doesn't retain that stuff unless I did it all the time. Just too many steps and the whole thing takes too long. I think typing on Word would be faster. At my age I am short of memory & patience! I use FF and don't worry about spelling as it always underlines. Even with that, I still spell wrong because I hit the submit button without proof reading. I'm always rushing. But back to the original question: Would Word work for using those symbols? I would us it rarely, but would like to occasionally. Jane

"I probably shouldn't, but I just have to point out something that I've noticed on GW more and more often." In fact, you most probably should have. My thanks to you, too. I can spell most anything correctly, big words and rare words included. ('Tho there is something odd about trying to get it right online -- words so often don't look wrong to me. Why that is, I've no idea. Case in point: it took me a couple of proofing rounds to realize there was a "greater than" sign at the end of this, rather than a period.) But I've undoubtedly spelled the thing above the fireplace "mantle" for so long that I could have spell checked and proofed 'til the cows came home. And still wouldn't have realized it was the wrong word. As for the rest of the debate here: I agree with dominoswrath. Relativism may be valid in many contexts, but spelling is not one of them. If you ask me. And righto, I realize grammatically correct/complete sentences are few & far between in my post! Chalk it up to serious lack of sleep last night. ;)

My husband was using them long before I was, way before windows, during the punch card era. I remember he was so proud when he got one of the very first "portable" computers the Osborne which was the size of a large suitcase with about a 6" screen, the screen was black with neon yellow text. Horrible thing. But man was he the hot ticket with his carry along pc LOL (he had 2 of them) I really do not remember the first one we had at home, before windows 3, but we did have an IBM with windows 3.1, that I recall. I think the first we got connected online was maybe around 1996 and definitely dial up through MSN. Before that we did use the juno email that would dial up on it's own with out an ISP connection. I was so thrilled when I found out our house near Dallas was in the test area for the first of the Verizon Fios fiber optic, I signed up to be a test house and was so happy to be flying along and not dealing with DSL any more. When we moved here I was devastated to leave my FIOS behind but luckily we have very very fast cable here so I have no complaints. I was lucky to have a good friend that is a linux programmer and coder, that took me under his wing and became my linux guru. He pushed me to install linux on one of my computers many years ago and man I am so glad he did. I do still have a few windows computers here but I dearly love using linux, not many worries about infection. I have my little netbook I can use in my recliner plus my Pandigital Novel tablet that I can carry around and use anywhere I want, especially laying in bed to read. A few desktops and my husbands laptop. I don't think I would know what to do with out a computer handy. for those that have never seen the Osborne portable computer which came out in I think the 80's here it is. "The machine was shipped as a full package including all the hardware and software a user could need including: 64K RAM, Z-80 CPU, 5" CRT, two floppy drives, keyboard, serial ports, CP/M operating system, WordStar, SuperCalc, and two versions of BASIC: CBASIC and MBASIC. The machine also had the ability to connect with scientific equipment via a built-in IEEE-488 interface, and could run an optional external monitor via the built-in port. Not only was the machine complete, it was cheap - $1795." It weighed 25 lbs. Osborne 1