Occasional language rant, #12

My new policy is not to complain about grammar, spelling, or punctuation until I see or hear the same mistake made at least half a dozen times.

It usually doesn't take very long.

Lately, I have heard people on radio, television, and at the seafood counter at the Giant say, for example, "The Patriots are a shoo-in to win the Super Bowl."

That turned out to be accurate, but the problem is when people write the word, rather than saying it. Too often, they type "shoe-in."  And why?  What about being the overwhelmingly presumptive winner of some race, or ballgame, or election, makes people think it has anything to do with their footwear?  I don't get that.

When you are trying to get a fly away from you at a picnic, you wave your hand and hiss, "Shoo, fly!" 

When you want to get a pack of dogs away from you, you holler, "Shoo!"

The only connection to shoes is to think that people are swatting the flies with their left Converse All-Star, or throwing a loafer to get the dogs to go.

And before you shoo me away, the aforementioned Super Bowl featured the Patriots versus the Rams. Versus. Against.  A two-syllable word from the old Latin, originally meaning "toward."

So why do people say it as "verse"? 

My answer is, the same reason that veterinarian becomes "vetnarian," meteorologist becomes "meterologist," temperature is "tempacher," and, most awful of all, February becomes "Febuary."

It must be that we're in too big a rush to finish speaking so we can watch "Dr Pimplepopper" on TV.