I beg to differ, and would love it if the music writers would follow that style.
I first noticed ‘mic’ for ‘mike’ about ten years ago, in a free weekly. Since then, it seems that 97% of writers have taken it as a standardized abbrieviation.
On preview I see Q.E.D.'s comments. ‘Mic’ seems (to me) better suited to a technical review than a music review.
But there is one in “fridge”. I read a book where the author repeatedly referred to stuff in the “frig” which I read quite differently (as in the root word of “friggin’”)
Maybe 97% of writers in tech publications, or wherever you se it. I’ve never seen “mic” used as an abbreviation for “microphone”. I have seen “mike” very often. I don’t think that even I’m unobservant enough to miss 97% of appearances, so I think we’re reading different books and magazines.
My 1980 paperback Funk & Wagnells lists ‘The place of payment’ as the third definition for check-out. Check out is listed as an ‘also’
But I understand your point.
A hand-painted sign I see all the time along Route 4 in Vermont reads:
Hat’s - Mittens
on one side, and:
Hats - Mitten’s
on the other. Nuttin’ like covering all the bases!
Using ‘callous’ in place of callus-“His hands were calloused” instead of callused.
I’ve just done a quick tour of the master control and production studios, and looked at the equipment that had microphone inputs. All of them are labelled “mic,” even on the 48-channel recording studio board. Make of that what you will…
Well, obviously I’;m not reading enough Sound Boards.
But all my magazines say “mike”.
That one’s easy. The root word is “they” and so the “e” retains its position.
“There is a rat in separate” is the way I’ve remembered it since I was a little kid.
My turn (many have already been mentioned, but these are my irks). Like so many of you, apostrophe abuse drives me absolutely batty. I see someone use 's for plural and I instantly think of them as a complete and total moron and I have a hard time taking them seriously after that. It’s just such a simple rule… how can you mess that up??
I do have my own apostrophe issue, though. I was telling my family about my 4.0 GPA this semester (I have returned to college) and I found myself troubled… did I get “straight As”? Because that looks like the word “as” to me. But I couldn’t figure out any grammatical justification for “straight A’s” other than it looks better.
Quotation marks used for emphasis annoy the ever-loving crap out of me as well. It makes it sound like you’re being dishonest or sneaky, and that you really mean something other than what the words say.
A local restaurant uses correct plurals for everything in their menu with one exception: every single instance of the word “eggs” is spelled “egg’s”. I brought this up to the lady at the cash register, and she INSISTED that it was to “bring attention” to the word. I’ve never heard of a mis-posessive’d-plural used for EMPHASIS before! What a crock of shit. She just didn’t want to admit the person who did the menu was an idiot.
Your/you’re is another that makes me think a person is simply stupid.
The things that Google displays at the bottom of this page are not adds. They are ads. You visit a web SITE not a SIGHT.
I hate that these things bother me as much as they do because it makes me feel elitist, but I can’t help my gut reactions!
(And for what it’s worth–i.e., nothing–I’ve usually seen “mic” not “mike”. In fact I can’t recall ever seeing “mike” as a shortened form of microphone.)
That’s soooooooooo Twentieth Century. 
What? you never heard of a “Boom Mike”?
Wikipedia gives equal time to both “mike” and “mic”, saying both are correct. But I note that they use “miking”, not “micing”, which supports my original argument
If I saw someone write “boom mike” I’d think they were being silly. “Boom mic” is what I would expect.
Yes, that’s an odd one. The term is “miking technique”, but on all the equipment by any manufacturer you’d care to name, the input says “mic”. The people who design, build, service and use this equipment refer to it as a “mic” but not a “mike.” So goes the English language. We have no shortage of arguments about it here.
What kinds of magazines do you read where they are referred to as a “mike”?
I have heard the term “miking” but never seen “mike” on its own (to my recollection).
I find this type of thing more irratating than the original gaffe. If they’re going to misuse the apostrophe, can’t they at least be consistent about it?
I used to walk by a ritzy jewelry store downtown that had a bunch of hand-calligraphed placards made up to display next to some of their pieces. I saw these for ages and suspect they may still be in use today. They all read: “To close out a estate.”
I guess a fancy place like that can’t afford to have the placards redone to accommodate an extra letter.
Not far from me is a place that never got off the ground. Maybe they realized they didn’t have a head for business any more than they did for grammar. The window, which looks professionally painted, says:
Comming Soon
Daylihgt Bakery
Free
Cholesterol
Donuts
Or maybe they found out no one wants cholesterol donuts, even if they were free.
I forgot to mention that I sometimes visit a website where there are people who are consistently “appauled” at minor things that go wrong in their lives.
Here’s one I just saw today:
*I used to spend hours **pouring *over maps of faraway places.
Really? What did you pour over the maps? Didn’t they get wet?
Oh, you mean you were poring over the maps.
You know what I come across almost every day that gives me a little shiver? “Please login.”
Your SO?
Re mic/mike: I have seen both, but vastly prefer “mike”. “Mic” always trips me up in my reading, as it should obviously be pronounced “mick”. After all, we don’t refer to a bicycle as a bic!
Well, you know – Time, Newsweek, Mad, Playboy, Journal of Irreproducible Results. The usual. I’ve never seen “mic”. Really.
Haven’t you ever seen signs for “Open Mike Night?” I never see “Open Mic Night”. Or “Open Mic Nite”