“OH my “n”

The 'n' key on my laptop has stopped functioning. that is, you have to press it in a certain way and pray hard for it to deliver.

Which means that if I was not putting in that extra effort the first sentence would have appeared as : “the key o my laptop has stopped fuctioig”

A bit about “n” and me. I have to admit that I had never really noticed it till it stopped working. I never thought it was special. But now that it has stopped working – was it overworked ? how does it rank against other letters in terms of use ? – I miss it.

Life is difficult. Email exchanges are difficult. Instead of “Oh, no no no no”, I am saying : “Oh o o o o o.”

Hmmmmm. Instead of the more emphatic “No, no no no no” I am saying “O, o o o o” more hmmmm. It’s just as well that I don’t have to speak without an “n” – what would a series of “o”s rising in a crescendo sound like ?

“No, never” is “o ever”. “Nevertheless” is “evertheless”. “Naughty, naughty” is “aughty, aughty”, “Negative”, thus is “egative”.

“Nervous” is “ervous”. There is a lot of difference between the two sets of expressions. It makes me wonder how one thing can mean quite its opposite with a very slight variation. How absence can turn into presence. Though I am not so sure about what “Notwithstanding”, another of my favourite words would turn out to be.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” are “Teeage Mutat Ija Turties”, “Onomatopoeia” is “oomatopoeia”.

“N. Korea” is just “Korea”, “Iran” is “Ira”, another beautiful name “N. America” is “America”. That is successful conflict management.

It’s a brave ew world. You may ot have oticed but writing all this has bee awfully tough. I have had to coax, cajole ad pressure this letter that will ot yield ad I cat do it ay more.

Oh my “n”.

So I am trying to seeze and cough well, that is ot ito my palm but ito the crook of my arm. I wat to catch the virus, elimiate it.