Quote and Letter to the Editor

5-Minute Memoir

Wordplay

by Lisa TE Sonne

...

My parents encouraged me to use my imagination in writing, but not in grammar and spelling. • Until I learned to be more of a conformist for the sake of clarity, I was known to write across the top of my papers a quote by Thomas Jefferson:  “I have nothing but contempt for anyone who can spell a word only one way.” ...

∼ Writer’s Digest, July-August, 2016, inkwell, page 10

After reading the entire article, I sent the magazine the following via Reader Mail: As a notoriously poor speller (now somewhat saved by spellcheck, except where my vocabulary outstrips the built in dictionaries) I took the Thomas Jefferson spelling quote to heart, deciding to post it on my blog.

In a nutshell, it’s fiction, attributed erroneously to many famous people over its LONG history.  Hope Lisa TE Sonne’s amusing incident occurred BEFORE the advent of quick internet fact-checking.