Editing America

The other day a man wearing a brown fedora strolled through Pike Place Market. Unlike most tourists, he wasn't there to browse or buy. He was there to edit.Yes, edit. Toting markers, chalk and white-out, the man known as the Indiana Jones of typos had come to do battle with this city's misspellings and botched punctuation. Seattle, bookish as it may claim to be, was revealed to be barely literate. There was the sign for "Dillettante" chocolate. The board announcing "Todays sample." The posters for "recepies," "cake's," "birthday candell's." The parking-lot warning that you get "no in/out priveleges." More ....

Test your spelling

Results from a Spelling Society survey reveal that we are a society that can't spell. But is our 'irregular' spelling system holding us back? Whether you're one of the 25% of adults who reckons they have a 'problem' with spelling, or the 66% who spurns the use of a spell-checker, try our fiendish test to find out whether your spelling is a recommendation, or just an embarrassment. And just to make it more difficult for US readers – who performed less well in the Spelling Society survey – UK spelling rules apply