There’s a banner in the Castro Street station that advises people to visit the San Francisco Ballet for what the banner calls “A Nite Out!”
It’s the ballet. If even the ballet cannot summon the snobbish wherewithal to spell “night” correctly, can there be a corner of this texting, chattering world that is safe for the English language?
Then I think, why not change the spelling? It’s much more logical: nite, lite, rite. The new spellings won’t obfuscate the meaning; if anything, they will help readers, not hurt them. Why not let the language evolve organically into a sensible arrangement of letters?
“Sight” and “site” will be a problem, as will “right” and “rite.” But not an unprecedented one; we can cope.
I still want to rip the banner down. But I no longer want to throw it onto the electric third rail just to watch it die.
English is dead: long live English.