The OK Scale

                                             I

-Throw down a case each of gallons, quarts, and pints.
-Nnnkay.
-Time for a stoke.
-‘Kay.
-Raise that float up to thirteen.
-Nnkay.
-Switch the plugs over in the back pan.
-‘Kay.
-Why don’t you take a couple hours off and come back at 9 pm, then work til the end?
-nKay. See you then.

                               II

“When I was at the bank on Tuesday, Andy Baringer asked me, ‘Is the season OK?’
I said, ‘Right now it’s on the low end of OK,’ and she looked a little worried and said, ‘That’s what the Rooneys would say too.’…….What we need this season is an OK Scale of one to ten.”

“One would be Not OK, and ten would be Very OK,” suggested Chief of Operations.

“Then where are we on the OK Scale?”

“You tell.”

III

Everyday in my inbox I receive a Daily Writing Tip. One day recently, the topic was the word ‘okay’. I learned that the proper way to spell ‘okay’ is ‘OK’. Spelling it ‘okay’ is not OK. Since I think of myself as a good speller, I felt chagrined. Decades of committing a spelling error? But has it been decades? Until email, I spoke ‘OK’, I didn’t write ‘OK’. I’m okay with learning new ways of doing things and will henceforth attempt to conform to the highest standard of the English language.

                                IV

-How was the season? a friend asked today.
-It was OK [A seven? An eight?]