Disappointing Phonetics

I just got to a horrible chapter in my shorthand textbook: the chapter where they tell you, with no apologies, that the same letter is used for long a, short a, and the ah sound. And the same letter is used for long e, short e and short i.

This means that not only are main and mane spelled the same, so is man. I'm guessing pin and pen are the same, just like in some southern accents. Each and itch are probably spelled the same.

That makes for easy writing, but what about reading? And it's shocking when I know that Gregg was all about phonetics and was even pushing to have our spelling system changed to be phonetic (just like other reasonable people try to get the US on the metric system). Well, when you yank out all the silent e's and whatnot, then it doesn't work so well having the same vowel stand for more than one sound.

It's probably going to be okay, though. After all, some languages have almost no vowels at all for grown-ups. (In Hebrew anyway, the consonants are big letters and the vowels are mostly little dots and dashes, mostly beneath the big letters, and these are used mostly only in kids' books.) Surely those languages have plenty of words that look the same without their vowels.

Rewards Shrink

The totally awesome rewards-earning capabilities of my best rewards credit card are about to shrink. Effective October 30, they will be merely good. This happened to a lot of cards many months ago, but not mine, and I have been thankful. (Note to self: must stock up on gas, groceries and drugstore stuff before October 30.)

While I was reading the fine print to see if I could tell them that I refuse this change (hey, I've seen that sort of thing!), I found this scary phrase under "Right to Change/Modify/Cancel": "We reserve the right to alter or waive any Program feature or benefit [duh, I knew this] prospectively or retroactively, including, without limitation, participation fees, point accrual or redemption criteria, or to cancel or temporarily suspend the Program at any time without prior notice."

Prospectively or retroactively? Suddenly I want to look up prospectively in the dictionary: yep, that means in the future.

Participation fees? There aren't any. They could suddenly start charging some and making that retroactive? Wha?

(I already knew to cash in my points every time I have enough to do so. My program doesn't give me a bonus for holding out.)

I should refuse to hold such a card. Only I suspect that the scary-sounding thing is unenforceable. Well, I am going to assume so, anyway.