Ryting Roolz 

An age-old mystery solved!

As usual, I'm always thinking (my double edged blessing/curse) which is useful when it's Thoughtful/Thankful Thursday.  My bestie, Pappy,  has fair colored hair which I am always teasing her about using the classic Blond Jokes.  And yes, I believe I used the word "blond" correctly in that sentence.  I had always wondered when teasing my friend relentlessly with my written assaults what was the proper way to spell her hair shade and I finally looked it up!  Go me.  So as you can observe to the left, the appropriate way

I had NO idea!

to mock her should be to call her a silly blonde, using the "e" at the end.  Boy, that alleviates yet another internal quandary for me :) However, I speculated, how many other grammar gaffes have I been littering my writing with?

Okay folks, here's one I didn't even realize I was getting wrong. I ran into this when I was looking up the blonde/blond info.  I have been using "breath" indiscriminately for both the noun and verb forms.  Well I tell you, never again!  And if I do you have my permission...nay, I encourage you!...to call me on it.

I think I may finally have it...for the most part :)

This one has been a thorn in my side for years.  I'm always in a questioning mood when I have to use effect/affect.  I found this chart the most helpful to me (and sadly I have researched many) in understanding how to properly use these two words.  The handiest part to me is the tip to substitute a different verb for "affect" which is usually a verb (and lends to the confusion of these words!).  The effect this dilemma has had on my brain has affected my confidence in using these words!  Hopefully I wrote that correctly :)

Perhaps, you too, have been as guilty as I have been in making these grammatical blunders,  But now, let us carry on in the light of this new-found knowledge and strive to use these words in an appropriate manner, effectively keeping the Grammar Police off our backs...at least as far as these examples go :)