Do I Have to Spell It Out for You?

Spelling reform has gotten a bad rap—cast usually as an intellectual dead end if not the exclusive domain of cranks and weirdos. It should be noted, however, that more than a few distinguished thinkers have been drawn to this most curious of causes, through which English orthography as we know it might finally be chucked and replaced with a more sensible alternative. Benjamin Franklin, Noah Webster, Charles Darwin, and Lord Tennyson are just some of the illustrious figures who have taken up spelling reform with, alas, little to show for their efforts.