"Push for simpler spelling persists"

Every once in a while, this bubbles to the surface of the news cycle: an idiotic idea to rework the entire English language to make spelling easier.

It's been 100 years since Andrew Carnegie helped create the Simplified Spelling Board to promote a retooling of written English and President Theodore Roosevelt tried to force the government to use simplified spelling in its publications. But advocates aren't giving up. ...

"It's a very difficult thing to get something accepted like this," says Alan Mole, president of the American Literacy Council, which favors an end to "illogical spelling." The group says English has 42 sounds spelled in a bewildering 400 ways.

I prefer to see as a wonderfully rich 400 ways.

English's uniqueness comes from its dual nature. It is, at its core, a Germanic language fused with a Romance language, and every subtle, daring, inspiring, breathtaking way that our words can be combined to convey meaning make me love the language even more. The odd spellings that survive to this day reflect some of the adventurous paths that our words have taken, and to strip the words of their etymological pasts will erase those paths for future generations.

I don't like the idea of simplifying our spelling, and I hope it is forever a novel concept that cannot find purchase.