Check-check double-check spell check. A Pink Sneakers on the Go dilemma. Or was that dilemna?

Still missing.  It’s been more than three weeks.  Almost a month, but then again, who’s counting?  Unless, of course, you are a travel blogger on the go, with nary a snippet of neither an idea nor a sprinkling of an inkling of how to jump-start your opening narrative.   The Runaways were nowhere to be seen.  Imagination had flown the coop.  Creativity was missing in action and Inspiration had buggered off to anywhere but here.

Inspiration leading a life of leisure in Capri?


Or, was that Imagination contemplating life on a magical Italian eve?

And where oh where is Creativty?  Always reaching for the skies....
Just contemplating life along the banks of the Seine...

Hanging out with the aristocracy in Versailles

Could it get any worse?

You have no idea.  I was in quite the dilemma.  Or, was that dilemna? 

Say what?  Or how do you spell that?

My conundrum began with an innocuous text from The Kid.

“Auntie Nora, how do you spell the word dilemma?  Dilemma with a double “m” or dilemna with a silent “n”?”  Simple enough, non? 

Trick question, I thought.  Surely there are dictionaries out there to consult and I have more pressing issues currently at hand, like tracking down the wayward trio.  Who has the time to double-check spell-check when I’m in a crunch of my own, furiously scrambling to beat the clock and get tomorrow’s blog post up and running?

Might as well placate The Kid and sound out the letters and get her off my back.  After all, her cuckoo ol’ Auntie Nora was Queen Bee in her heyday and linguistics was just right up her pink sneakered alley. 

D. I. L. E. M. N. A.

And don’t forget to pronounce the silent “N”. 

And just because I’m that type of triple-checking sort of gal, thought I’d also look it up in the dictionary just to prove that I’m always right. 

D. I. L. E. M. M. A.

There’s a double MM?  Since when?  More like double vision actually.  Like, am I losing my mind or even worse, my sight?  WHERE is the silent “N”?  Or, is it so silent that it’s forever disappeared, never to be heard from ever again??

What is going on?  WHO changed the spelling and why wasn’t I informed of this monumental shake-up of the placement of these two consonants?  Should I just chalk it up to an ill-placed typo?  Perhaps Webster’s has already figured out their gaffe, re-ignited the presses and churned out truckloads of re-prints, discretely re-stocking the shelves of bookstores and libraries worldwide.



Like seriously?  Did those mischievous gremlins of Travel Disruption expand their horizons and purposely jumble the letters of the alphabet just to trip me up?  I wouldn’t put it past them as their crazy ol’ shenanigans have road-blocked me time and time again, hurling me off the beaten path towards uncharted destinations along miles of unplanned routes.

And so dear reader, that is how I ended up squandering my scribbling hours away, obsessively foraging for the truth with regards to the correct spelling of DILEMNA (DILEMMA?) thus temporarily suspending my quest to track down the elusive Runaways.


The adventure somewhere continues....

I therefore leave it up to you to decipher which is the correct spelling.  Either you belong to the double M school of thought or veer off the path of dictionaries worldwide, subscribing to the theory of a conspiracy to eradicate any trace of this alternate spelling of where the N follows the M.  Just like the alphabet.

How could I be so wrong?   Or, am I?

On that note, might as well catch up with my reading and get back to the ever so fascinating and informative issues as discussed in the Mandela Effect.

And, don’t even get me started on the correct spelling of the Berenstein Bears.

Catch up with the adventures of cuckoo ol’ Auntie Nora in just a couple of weeks, where my pink-sneaker clad feet find themselves traipsing along the cobblestone rues of Quebec City or was that Lisbon?  Or Porto?  Or perhaps even somewhere else?  And, most importantly, do I track down the Runaways?  Stay tuned!!


Next post – In four weeks!  Wednesday, January 25th, 2017!!