Happyness

Gosh darn it! I went to the movies a few weeks ago and saw a trailer for The Pursuit of Happyness. It’s a new movie starring Will Smith and it’s based on the Life of Chris Gardner. It looks like a really good movie. I was thinking during the trailer that I’d really like to see it and then I saw the title. Happyness, what the heck? It’s not a word, that’s not how you spell it! Apparently this was done on purpose and something in the movie gives the meaning away. I could have done with that explanation at the start of that post I just linked to because I find the repeated use of “happyness” infuriating. It was a very nice post but there’s something inside me (caught it from my husband I think) that just can’t abide this kind of use of the language, the language is difficult and silly enough without making up words, (misapostrophication is different, there’s no single word that already describes that) and changing spellings and meanings. Anyway, I guess I’ll have to watch the movie to find out what’s going on with that word.