Bad cereal!

I often use Twitter to muse about the uber-trivial things that often creep into my head. Yesterday was no different, as I was shepherding my brood home from a faraway place and found myself reaching for the BlackBerry during rest stops. I like the small break from the ordinary that a little bit of wordplay can offer.

So as the trip drew to a close, I tweeted this: Cereal mispellings bug me. Rice Krispies? Froot Loops? Is this the best way to start the day?

Said tweet, through the magic of social media, automatically became a Facebook status update (see here for my home page. It's too early in the day for me to figure out unique URLs of status updates.) Which then touched off a discussion among my readers. So I thought I'd bring it over here, too. Because I'm manic like that.

So, my point is that language is being eroded by deliberate misspellings like this. I recognize that language is under attack on a number of fronts - including the very tools like Twitter and texting that I use to keep in touch while I'm on the run - but there's something particularly galling when it's a major company playing fast and loose with the rules of spelling, grammar and clear communication.

Your turn: Got an example of deliberate misspelling? Does this bug you? Why/why not?