Phonetic alphabets

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Tue, 7 Dec 2004 15:17:03 -0500,   Wilson Gray
<wilson.gray at RCN.COM> writes:
>
>  James Bowie of knife fame was definitely a [bui]. Once upon a time,
>  there was a TV adventure series based upon his life. The program had a
>  theme song that began, "Jim [bui]! Jim [bui]! Jim [bui]!" The fraternal
>  twins, Raymond and Rosemary Bowie, with whom I attended grade school in
>  the '40's, were also [bui]. That is to say, it was once the case that
>  *everybody* knew that "Bowie" was pronounced [bui].

The theme song was "Jim [bui]! Jim [bui]!  He was a bold..." and I forget
what followed.  It had a catchy tune.

>From my years in Washington DC I can say with some authority that Bowie
Maryland is /bui/.  A coworker who lived there had a daughter who was on her
school's track team.  I dubbed her the /bui boo-let/.

>  Speaking of namesakes, I received an e-mail today from one "Wilson
>  Gunn."

A Wilson gun would be a Garand idea, but I'm afraid it won't happen.  What is
more likely is the Wilson Sword Blade razor, with the obvious advertising
slogan "A Wilson has 14 points!"

The crossed-sabers logo for the US Cavalry apparently was invented by General
James H. Wilson for the cavalry corps he commanded in the Union Army.

A list of cavalry carbines used in the Civil War:  Spencer, Sharps, Burnside,
Starr, Smith, Gallagher, Maynard, Ballard, Cosmopolitan, Remington Joslyn,
and Henry (the last became the famous Winchester).

    - Jim Landau