[ExI] commentary by one of ours

[Mike Dougherty]

On Sun, Dec 4, 2011 at 12:51 PM, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Darren Greer <darren.greer3 at gmail.com> sic'ed:
>
>>Very cool. The publisher created it because it was up for one of those
>>public voter-type deals here in Canada, and they thought it would boost its
>>chances. I notice it hasn't been viewed very much, but it is good to know
>>it peaked someone's interest.
>
> Aaggh, hate to be a grammar nazi, but there is a very real and vast (and tooth-grinding) difference between "to peak" and "to pique"!

I consider it valuable feedback/education on that difference.
Considering Darren has professed to be a writer and also considering
the sometimes deplorable state of proof-reading services he may
employ, it's better to know about that particular homophone while
writing than to hope someone catches it later.  (since it would not be
trapped by a spellchecker)

In many cases we hear words (like "piqued") and learn their meaning
through context.  My college roommate pronounced the letter "b" in the
word doubt [doob't].  I had no idea what he was saying until he
spelled the word; being a voracious reader he had only ever seen the
word in print and imagined how it should be pronounced from how it is
spelled.  I expect this will become more common since so much
communication is now in print. (or rather 'type' since relatively few
words make it all the way to dead-tree hosting these days)