Currant Events (or problems with spell check)

First, I must apologize to the currant growers, who may have come across this title when searching the web, and came here eager for news of the current state of the currant industry.

One of the problems if you're a bad speller, is relying on programs within Works, Word, Open Office, Gmail, Email, etc. that are supposed to check your spelling, making you look erudite, thus giving your opinions and rants greater weight and respect. Usually, they're pretty good, not up on the latest netspeak and shortcuts, but that's a small problem.

The bigger problem is homophones (rain/reign/rein, break/brake). Most of them I don't have trouble with. Occasionally, I'll have to stop and think: they're = they are, their = belonging to them, there = a location. I generally find if I'm typing fast that last one will get by me sometimes. And spellcheck can't tell you you're using it incorrectly.

My biggest homophone problem, as you might have guessed, is the word which means contemporary. I was using it frequently in something I was writing, and I'd have to check the dictionary every time it came up.

At least in this case, a mnemonic device has proved very effective. If I need to write about current events, or an electric current, or river current, a picture of an animated, wrinkled fruit pops into my head. It is jumping up and down, waving its little stick arms, its eyes angry and mouth going a mile a minute. The currant is ranting (get it -- nudge, nudge)! It is therefore not the write right (damn homophones!) spelling for any of the meanings I want to convey.

I'll never get that wrong again. Now, if only some spellchecks could be made to admit when they don't know what a word is. Recently, my Open Office spellcheck didn't highlight the word "dieing," which I had twice in a manuscript. Since it couldn't figure out what I was trying to say, it just ignored the whole business.