BBC News is reporting that the Government is now advising schools to not teach the “i before e except after c” rule. Which is good, since it’s a fucking stupid rule that has persisted only because it sounds good rather than actually being a useful guide to English spelling. Apply “i before e except after c” to: the consciences of a society of eighty science-loving atheists who decided to leisurely visit the heights of the Eiffel Tower while wearing beige were shocked by the presence of a feisty, heinous sheik fondling a dreidel-bearing geisha. Or: Einstein’s feisty caffeinated rottweiller observed the kaleidoscope and zeitgeist of popular culture while his Master reified. (I particularly like ‘reified’ not only because I’m a semantic web dork but also because it instantiates both the rule and it’s negation.)
