I'm not asking for your sympathy nor am I asking for your dollars (although, if you were to send some my way within the next 12 hours, they will match yours by 900%).
OK, maybe a little sympathy. This brief note is titled "It came to this" for a $60 reason.
For 25 years I have written online about U.S. politics and international affairs, 20 years of which have been on this site. And for 2o years I have proofread each post either before pressing "publish" or once it's up. On occasion, especially with longer posts, I have proofread them twice, maybe thrice.
And for 20 years I have, now and then, looked back on them and run across typo after typo as well as missing articles — a's, an's and the's. Now, before you protest, Well, you idiot, you needed a spell checker, yes, I have always had one. In fact I've tried several, every one of which promoted itself as free and, indeed, it was free..
Free, I gather, because sometimes it would catch a word like "thsi" and sometimes it would not. It might or might not also underline a phrase missing an article, whether definite or indefinite.
So today I surrendered. I heaved $60 on a credit card for a spell checker that promises never again — never shall any such orthographic or syntactical crime go unnoticed and thus unpunished by its Department of Corrections.
It had better work. Because like The Washington Post, it won't refund any of the $60 annual cost should I wish to be done with it.