BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//sebbo.net//ical-generator//EN NAME:Edison Public Library X-WR-CALNAME:Edison Public Library BEGIN:VEVENT UID:f7c626e3-73b0-40ba-b39c-64d30f42c3d8 SEQUENCE:0 DTSTAMP:20260824T133251Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250917T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250917T150000 SUMMARY:Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell LOCATION:EPL Virtual\nEPL Virtual X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=EPL Virtual;X-APPLE-RADIUS =10;X-TITLE=EPL Virtual:geo:0,0 GEO:0;0 DESCRIPTION:Come on a surprisingly hilarious journey with us and author Ga be Henry through the history of the English language\, while we discuss tr oublemakers like Mark Twain who broke all the rules..\nhttps://edisonpubli clibrary.libnet.info/event/14204661 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

**Questions for the speaker can be submitt ed on the Registration page.**

\n

Have you ever wondered why the Engl ish spelling of words is sometimes&hellip\; well&hellip\; just \;weird ? \;Come on a surprisingly hilarious journey with us and author Gabe H enry through the history of the English language\, while we discuss troubl emakers like Mark Twain who broke all the rules. \;

\n

Anyone who has the misfortune to write in English will\, every now and then\, strugg le with its spelling. In our erratic system\, \;choir \;a nd \;liar \;rhyme\, \;daughter \;and&nbs p\;laughter \;don&rsquo\;t\, and somehow \;you&n bsp\;and \;ewe \;can&rsquo\;t agree on a single letter. S o why do we still use it? If our spelling is so inconsistent\, why haven&r squo\;t we tried to fix it? \;

\n

In the comic annals of linguist ic history\, legions of rebel wordsmiths have died on the hill of spelling reform\, risking their reputations to simplify English spelling. This boo k is about them: Mark Twain\, Eliza Burnz\, Noah Webster\, Upton Sinclair\ , Emma Dearborn\, Theodore Roosevelt\, Benjamin Franklin\, and the countle ss other &ldquo\;simplified spellers&rdquo\; who\, for a time in their liv es\, became fanatic about writing \;kof \;instead of  \;cough\, \;tung \;for \;tongue\, a nd \;fyzics \;for \;physics \;(and tried futilely to get everyone around them to do it too).

\n

In \; Enough is Enuf\, Gabe Henry humorously traces the &ldquo\;simplified spelling movement&rdquo\; from medieval England to Revolutionary America\, from the birth of standup comedy to contemporary pop music\, and explores its lasting influence in words like \;color \;(without a  \;U)\, \;plow \;(without \;-ugh)\, and the iconic &rsquo\;90s ballad &ldquo\;Nothing Compares 2 U.&rdquo \; Finally\, Henry brings us to the digital age\, where the swift pace of online exchanges now pushes us all 2ward simplification. \;

\n

Re gister now for this informative and entertaining conversation to find out why Gabe Henry thinks UR not a bad speller\, the English language is.  \;

\n

About the Author: Gabe Henry is the author of three books including the poetry anthology \;Eating Salad Drunk\, a humor collaboration with Jerry Seinfeld\, Bob Odenkirk\, Mike Birbi glia\, Margaret Cho\, and other titans of comedy. \;Eating Salad Drunk  \;was featured in \;The New Yorker \;in February 202 2 (&ldquo\;A Smattering of Haiku for the Burnout Age&rdquo\;) and ranked o ne of \;Vulture&rsquo\;s \;Best Comedy Books of 2022. Henry&rsquo\ ;s work has been published in \;TIME\, \;New York Mag azine\, \;The New Yorker\, the \;Weekly Humorist \, \;US News &\; World Report\, and more. He has spen t more than a decade exploring the strange and forgotten history of simpli fied spelling\, which\, by his own admission\, has only made him a worse s peller. He lives and works in New York. Learn more at www.gabehenry.com.\nhttps://edisonpubliclibrary.libnet.info/event/14204661 URL;VALUE=URI:https://edisonpubliclibrary.libnet.info/event/14204661 ATTACH:https://static.libnet.info/images/events/edisonpubliclibrary/Gabe_H enry.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR