Will Hughes has been teasing me for a while about my misspelling of the word “surprise.”  As of late, I started using “surprize,” instead. Loving its vaguely American look and expecting the common misspelling to be accepted as a viable spelling alternative sooner or later, I used it with relish. Will’s last electronic-mail message put a dent into my enthusiasm, though. Enough is enough. Time has come to return to the literate fold. And so I decided to correct my writings for this year at least. It was quite a surprise, though. The job I thought would take only a few minutes stretched over almost half an hour. Obviously, I use the silly word all too often. Although I do not mind using common expressions rather liberally, for they strike me as fascinating in their own right, I must be a bit more careful with expressions such as “to my surprise,” “quite a surprise,” “hardly surprising,” or “surprise, surprise.” To wit, the common misspelling has turned out to be the least of my problems. Alas!