Special Snowflake Stories

[Kendo_Bunny]

I used to do radio and if I ever slipped up and mispronounced a word, some anonymous listener would photocopy that page in the dictionary, highlight the word and the pronunciation and mail it to me. 

My husband is a volunteer DJ on public radio and the university student radio station.  There is another girl who DJs on both stations.  She is relatively new to the islands.  A public radio listener heard the Girl DJ mispronounce the name of her town so she, the listener, posted a nasty comment on her Facebook that the public radio station should be ashamed of itself for having such an ignorant DJ who doesn't know how to pronounce [Town Name].

I spoke to Girl DJ later.  She said this woman listener discusses on her Facebook account how her greatest challenge is learning to tolerate ignorance gracefully.  I think she has a long way to go before she qualifies as "graceful."  The listener could have called the DJ directly and simply told her the proper pronunciation of the town name.  She didn't have to go for public humiliation.

Wow... I went to college in a town that is not pronounced the way it's spelled, and I have corrected newcomers on the pronunciation (I had to be corrected myself when I moved there). But insults over it? Jeez.

[judecat]

Locally, it's pronounced MARE-lun.  Mare like the female horse. That person who heads a city government is also a mare.   And that city Baltimore?  BAWL-mur.  The baseball team is the OR-yuls.  That large bird on the US money?  That's an iggle. They can't really do much to mess up the football team name Ravens.


Actually some of us pronounce the state closer to Merlyn like the arthurian wizard.

[Kaora]

Locally, it's pronounced MARE-lun.  Mare like the female horse. That person who heads a city government is also a mare.   And that city Baltimore?  BAWL-mur.  The baseball team is the OR-yuls.  That large bird on the US money?  That's an iggle. They can't really do much to mess up the football team name Ravens.


Actually some of us pronounce the state closer to Merlyn like the arthurian wizard.

Mare-ah-lund here.  I also say Borderlunds, but Wasteland.

[Shoo]

And the state to the north of California is OR-uh-gun or even OR-gun. Not orry-GON.

Born and raised in Oregon and it is pronounced Orry-gun.

[Jape]

they should know that the state of Maryland is pronounced more like 'MERI-lund' than 'MARY-LAND'. it made the place sound like a fun park.

Out of interest - why?  That probably sounds snarky, but it's not meant to be.  Merely curious.  The US is a big place with a lot of place names that don't seem to neccessarily be pronounced the same throughout your own country.  I'm from Australia and I would probably pronounce it Mary-land.  I don't know that I've ever heard an American pronounce Melbourne correctly (It's pronounced more Mel-burn than Mel-born).  I just figure, you weren't born here and you're doing your best.

[greencat]

they should know that the state of Maryland is pronounced more like 'MERI-lund' than 'MARY-LAND'. it made the place sound like a fun park.

Out of interest - why?  That probably sounds snarky, but it's not meant to be.  Merely curious.  The US is a big place with a lot of place names that don't seem to neccessarily be pronounced the same throughout your own country.  I'm from Australia and I would probably pronounce it Mary-land.  I don't know that I've ever heard an American pronounce Melbourne correctly (It's pronounced more Mel-burn than Mel-born).  I just figure, you weren't born here and you're doing your best.

Mostly because we have a lot of distinct regional, state, and even city-specific accents, and the etymology of the place names sometimes also affects the pronunciation.  It is Mare-ih-lund for me, which seems to be the fairly standard way to pronounce it when not affected by a local accent.

Oddly enough, the cultural oddities that affect our place names led to my brain hurting as a teenager when I was visiting Boston for a summer program, and my boyfriend lived in the suburb Worchester, while my roommate was from Wooster, Ohio.  Both place names are pronounced "Wuss-ter."

[mariejkt]

And the state to the north of California is OR-uh-gun or even OR-gun. Not orry-GON.

Born and raised in Oregon and it is pronounced Orry-gun.

Another born and raised in Oregon and I have always heard and pronounced it Orry-gun

[MariaE]

Could the pronounciation descriptions please be moved to another thread?

[HorseFreak]

they should know that the state of Maryland is pronounced more like 'MERI-lund' than 'MARY-LAND'. it made the place sound like a fun park.

Out of interest - why?  That probably sounds snarky, but it's not meant to be.  Merely curious.  The US is a big place with a lot of place names that don't seem to neccessarily be pronounced the same throughout your own country.  I'm from Australia and I would probably pronounce it Mary-land.  I don't know that I've ever heard an American pronounce Melbourne correctly (It's pronounced more Mel-burn than Mel-born).  I just figure, you weren't born here and you're doing your best.

Mostly because we have a lot of distinct regional, state, and even city-specific accents, and the etymology of the place names sometimes also affects the pronunciation.  It is Mare-ih-lund for me, which seems to be the fairly standard way to pronounce it when not affected by a local accent.

Oddly enough, the cultural oddities that affect our place names led to my brain hurting as a teenager when I was visiting Boston for a summer program, and my boyfriend lived in the suburb Worchester, while my roommate was from Wooster, Ohio.  Both place names are pronounced "Wuss-ter."

It's actually spelled Worcester. 

Back to SS, here's one: my intern is throwing an enormous fit that she can't have the entire Christmas break off and Christmas Day since she was off for a week during Thanksgiving (which I thought was ridiculous anyway since we had to beg students for help). She doesn't seem to realize that intern = one year of being a servant in exchange for a decent paycheck and a lot of knowledge required to advance in the field. Most internships actually involve only a few hours of sleep a night for weeks at a time and she hardly has much to do. She actually think the people who have advanced beyond her position need to come help her with the menial tasks that were fully explained as her duties.  That includes myself and I held her exact position a couple years ago, was 10x as busy and didn't have a fraction of the help she does. I actually work MORE hours overall than she does and I have to work Christmas this year.

[MrTango]

My sister.

She has a neurological condition that causes her heart rate to spike and her blood pressure to drop (yeah, I don't get it either) any time she physically exerts herself or gets excited.  This means that even standing up out of a chair can cause her to pass out.

She's been in several minor car accidents in the last month due to this condition (a curb/fence/tree/other car just "jumps out" at her), and yet she seems to think it's okay to drive because, in her words "I only drive when I have to."

Somehow, I don't think "But I only drive when I need to" is going to be a very good defense when she wrecks her car and kills someone...

[kherbert05]

When I went to University there was a large group of us from the Houston area. One of the upperclassmen girls took exception to how we pronounced Houston. One day in the TV lounge she lost it.


She got in my face and told me it is pronounced Houston not youston now say it right.


Silence


Me were are you from


Her Plano


Me I'm from YOUston. My family has been in YOUston for 3 generations (don't laugh for here that is a long time). I'm a native YOUstonian. We get to decide how it is pronounced not you.


Silence me staring at her, she turns heel and walks off.


Some other girl - Do you know who that was.


Me - I. Do. Not. Care. I grew up with the Memorial and River Oaks Brats. I don't give a fig what they think of me. I don't care what a some girl from Plano thinks of me - I would NOT care if she was from Highland Park. No one gets in my face like that.  (All neighborhoods of the wealthy/privileged/powerful families)


Girl from my high school - laughing  And I thought you were mute for 4 years. (I didn't talk much in HS)

[Hunter-Gatherer]

She has a neurological condition that causes her heart rate to spike and her blood pressure to drop (yeah, I don't get it either) any time she physically exerts herself or gets excited.  This means that even standing up out of a chair can cause her to pass out.

I'm not a doctor (and I don't even play one on TV), but if you look at it the other way (her blood pressure drops, and then her heart rate speeds up to try to compensate but it doesn't work it kind of makes sense.

[HorseFreak]

She has a neurological condition that causes her heart rate to spike and her blood pressure to drop (yeah, I don't get it either) any time she physically exerts herself or gets excited.  This means that even standing up out of a chair can cause her to pass out.

I'm not a doctor (and I don't even play one on TV), but if you look at it the other way (her blood pressure drops, and then her heart rate speeds up to try to compensate but it doesn't work it kind of makes sense.

It does make sense. Cardiac output = stroke volume x heart rate. When your blood pressure drops the heart has to work harder to keep blood circulating to appropriately perfuse your tissues and it can only do this in so many ways, the easier being speeding up.

I know it's terrifying to lose independence like that, but driving like that might just be itching for a Darwin Award.

[mbbored]

She has a neurological condition that causes her heart rate to spike and her blood pressure to drop (yeah, I don't get it either) any time she physically exerts herself or gets excited.  This means that even standing up out of a chair can cause her to pass out.

I'm not a doctor (and I don't even play one on TV), but if you look at it the other way (her blood pressure drops, and then her heart rate speeds up to try to compensate but it doesn't work it kind of makes sense.

I don't know about a neurological condition, but I have low blood pressure and a high pulse rate. My doctor says this isn't an uncommon combination. If I stand up suddenly I can get light headed and/or see spots.

[greencat]

A point of interest from my own medical history, which I got reminded of today by experiencing it again: having dizziness associated with changing positions from laying down to sitting to standing is because your blood pressure drops when you change positions, which is called orthostatic vitals, which in my own personal case, is caused by being a little dehydrated and usually by not having my customary dose of caffeine in my system.  That is, this morning I didn't have my customary three cups of cola and I nearly passed out while cleaning up at work.

My special snowflake for today is my cat.  Despite have free access to and from the outside from the back of my house, she prefers to wait in the front of the house and meow until I let her in - even though she went out the back.