Niagara Falls = "Niffles"

[David Bergdahl]

Edward House was Wilson's aide, the man-behind-the-scenes, his Karl Rove.

On 12/21/06, Mark A. Mandel <mamandel at ldc.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Niagara Falls = "Niffles"
>
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>
> JL quotes a 1929 letter to Time Magazine:
> >>
>
>   During the War it was an Englishman who said the Americans were worse
> than
> the English in the difference between spelling and pronunciation. "You
> spell
> it W-i-l-s-o-n and pronounce it 'House,'" he remarked.
>
> <<
>
> Is that a reference to US politics? (Wilson was President during World War
> I.) If not, I don't get it at all.
>
> m a m
>
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