So, that happened. With all good intentions of resuming regular blogging, I announced the end of my hiatus back in November. It’s now April. Sometimes it’s hard to think about writing for pleasure when you also write for a living, but it sure is a good way to get random thoughts out of my head. Like “canceled.” 

I don’t think I’ve seen or written “canceled” in my entire life as much as I have the last month. The first signs of the new coronavirus for many of us were cancellations and closures. Sporting events. Classes. Gyms. Retails stores. Work locations. Churches. Etc., etc., etc.

In the spirit of trying to find a silver lining, a direct outcome the pandemic is I now know how to spell “canceled” properly in American English — with only one “l.” Same with “canceling.” Crazy, right? Everything I know about language and spelling urges me to spell it “cancelled.” But no matter how many times I try to insert that extra letter, Microsoft’s spellcheck and Grammarly both flag the error.

It would be logical to assume that “cancelation” also has one “l.” You would be wrong. It’s “cancellation.”