It's a grey area... Was: Re: eye colour and other queries

[Carol]

Carol, who frequently has to change "grey" to "gray" in American
> > manuscripts and wishes she didn't have to because she likes "grey" 
> better
> >
> 
> Aw, go on.  Leave the E in.  You know you want to.
> 
> Annemehr, who can afford to go for style over stylebooks because her
job's not at stake <g>
>
Carol:
Unfortunately for my spelling preferences, my job *is* at stake. You
follows the publisher's preferred style, miss, or you doesn't get any
more projects and you goes without galleons. :-( 

I'll spell the word as "grey" in private correspondence or in posts,
but in manuscripts edited for American publishers, it has to be "gray"
(the preferred spelling in Merriam Webster's), which at least has the
virtue of being spelled as it sounds. ("Greyhound" is spelled with an
"e," though, oddly enough.)

No doubt Noah Webster, who took the "u" out of "colour," is
responsible. Didn't George Orwell try to do something similar with
British spelling, or did he just try to reduce the vocabulary to
"Basic English"?

Carol, too lazy to look up Orwell's plans for improving the language
right now but hoping someone is familiar with the subject