I have a long list of pet peeves, some that bug me more than others. One that I see popping up more and more is that people spell lose with two o‘s. Lately, I’ve taken to passing over even potentially interesting articles that have this misspelling, such as this recent one: “How inventors and entrepreneurs loose touch with reality.”

Call me shallow, but I prefer a firm touch (not a “loose” one). This article also talks about “loose perspective.” I suppose that’s in contrast to a tight one? “When you loose perspective you begin to loose your objectivity.” Well, whatever that means, it sounds bad.

Once, my Mandrake Linux box warned me to be careful about performing a certain operation. Apparently I could “loose data.” Oh no! I thought. We can’t have all that loose data floating around! How would we ever get it back in the computer? It would be like stuffing toothpaste back into the tube.

Searching through the other OS files on the system, I found other instances of the same gaffe:

• “You need to save the drawing before you close it. Otherwise you will loose the drawing.” Not if I tie it up first!
• “Do you agree to loose all the partitions?” Not after what they did to me! They still owe me!
• “we can loose the AUTOLOAD method” But there’s no telling what it might do!
• “Moreover, a glyph can loose some of its details, like serifs, at small sizes to become more readable…” But when you need those details back, how do you re-attach them?
• “loose case distinction” (Ooh! Dirty!)

UPDATE: If it helps you to remember, try the following nonsensical sentence: “Loose as a moose on a goose.”

-TimK