pianist vs. piano player

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:04 PM -0500 2/7/02, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>
>That goes also for the pronunciation of same, e.g., peeANNist vs
>PEEuhnist.  I used to do the pissy PEEnis version but now usually refer
>to myself as plain old ANN.
>
Speaking of which, the penultimate-stress (ANN) version does kinda
wipe out that whole family of jokes involving the hard-of-hearing
genie and the guy in the bar who ended up getting a twelve-inch
pianist that he hadn't exactly wished for.  (This is also one context
where "piano player" doesn't quite work.)

(See inter alia
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Union/1669/12Inch.html if the
punchline's not enough.)

larry