Niagara Falls = "Niffles"

[hpst@earthlink.net]

Jon,

The way I heard this story from my father was that the famous editor Frank
Crowninshield got so sick and tired of the way the Brits pronounced words
that when asked one day who he was and where he came from he said, "I am
Frank Crunchle from Niffles."

I have no idea where my father heard this story.

Colonel House reminds me of some of Bush 43's advisors and I would suggest
that he was the person who invented what today we call neo conservatism..

He is a person with whom we all become acquainted in terms of  his speeches
and writings if we are to understand W's foreign policy and its roots in
House and Wilson's ideas.

If anyone out there would be interested in comparing House's use of words
with W's and the neo cons I think that there might be a thesis or
dissertation somewhere in the project.

Page Stephens

> [Original Message]
> From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 12/21/2006 10:46:21 AM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Niagara Falls = "Niffles"
>
> I should have glossed that. Col. Edward M. House was Wilson's closest
political and diplomatic advisor during and immediately after World War I.
>
>   JL
>
> "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Mark A. Mandel"
> Subject: Re: Niagara Falls = "Niffles"
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>  __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org