You Ask, I Answer, Take 21

This is the final installment of You Ask, I Answer for a while.  If I receive more questions from some of you, I'll add them to a list, and when some have built up, we'll bring You Ask, I Answer back.  In the meantime, stay tuned on Thursday for an introduction to "If..." coming your way in the original Tuesday/Thursday You Ask, I Answer slot!

The honor of the last question for this go-round of You Ask, I Answer, goes to Ian, who asked:

favourite colour? notice that i use the "u" in both words so you could even go off on a tangent talking about the quirkiness of words and just how particular you may or may not be about having things "just so". actually, that topic may be of more value to me since i'm the sort that doesn't care about some things like that but is very particular about spelling and grammar sometimes.

well, enough rambling. my question is more about being particular in some areas and not in other areas but if you just want to tell me what your favourite colour is and why then i'll just be satisfied with that.

Ian, this question made me laugh!

I have an answer for you, or two answers really, I suppose.

My favorite color is probably green, or maybe blue.  Earthy colors both.  But I can't say I have one particularly dominant color favorite.  I will say that I love color, though.  And that the one thing I truly loathe in terms of color is a room done in nothing but beige.  Color is so connected to mood for me, and I'm definitely a fan of bright and rich colors.  No pastels please.

As for the rest of your question, you'll notice that I spelled both words without the "u".  And the quirkyness of words, and particularly of the spelling of these words, makes me laugh.

Since Canadian's use "ou" and Americans use "o" in words like color, neighbour, honor and so on, they are definitely quirky.  What's worse is that I spell some of them one way and some the other!  It's my own little quirk, caused by being raised by a Canadian dad and a dual citizen mom.  And mom homeschooled us for several years, the early years, the years where we learned how to spell, and so my spelling is all mixed up and drives Canadians who are particular about grammar and spelling just a bit crazy!  It also doesn't help that the spellchecker on my laptop is set to use American English, and I've simply never bothered to change it, so whenever I use the "ou" spelling, it howls at me.  That said, I am a bit particular about grammar most of the time - it's just my spelling that's a tad confused!

I like my writing to be "just so", but, on the other hand, I hate editing, and rarely do it, especially on blog posts.  I do it on school work,  or longer essays that are written for something other than a blog, but I don't do it on blog posts, and I know that sometimes mean that my grammar, spelling, or typos cloud the text.  So, clearly I'm not all quite as particular as I like to think!