The "Mark Twain" Satire on Spelling Reform - alt.usage.english

Message from discussion The "Mark Twain" Satire on Spelling Reform

T Bruce Tober

More options Mar 3 1999, 3:00 am

Newsgroups: alt.usage.english

From: T Bruce Tober <octobers...@reporters.net>

Date: 1999/03/03

Subject: Re: The "Mark Twain" Satire on Spelling Reform

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In article <1dny00l.31agz710ns6...@p137.hlm.euronet.nl>, Donna Richoux
<t...@euronet.nl> writes

>Cornell Kimball <corn...@spambgon.pacificnet.net> wrote:

>> We all know the spelling reform satire that was "written by Mark
>> Twain" -- the one that starts:
>[snip lengthy discussion]

>For those who wish to compare the two originals, the addresses are found
>in the "Intro E: Mini-FAQ on Spelling." They are:

>The three-paragraph "Mark Twain's plan for the improvement of spelling"
> http://comedy.clari.net/rhf/jokes/87/2094.10.html

>The fourteen-paragraph MEIHEM IN CE KLASRUM by Dolton Edwards
> http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d92-abj/humor/spelling_reform.html

>> Why do I not believe that Mark Twain did write the original and that
>> W.K. Lessing plagiarized it? For one, Mark Twain's works are very well
>> known.

I'm really rather confused here. If the Lessing piece was published in
the mid '50s or so (and yes I recall reading it several times in various
publications) and Sam Clemens was long dead by then (having managed, in
1910, to make true the rumours he had disparaged for so long) how could
He have plagiarised from Lessing?

tbt --
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