One of my favo(u)rite examples of the inconsistencies that plague this particular minefield
(not nearly enough metaphors mixed there, I know) is the word "soccer". Whenever people from the UK froth and insist it's "football" (the term I use in my idiolect) I love reminding them that the word "soccer" was coined in the UK.
The simple reality is, of course, that standardised orthography is simply a conspiracy foised on our ancestors by the lazy yobs at Caxton-era printeries who couldn't be bothered setting type for both eggs
AND eyren
