a nightmare for Tom Zurinskas

[James A. Landau <JJJRLandau@netscape.com>]

Traveling through Jersey Devil country around Fort Dix with the aid(?) of Mona, our absent-minded GPS:

Everyone agrees with Tom Zurinskas about how to pronounce "Kershaw", right?  Not Mona.  She directed us to something she called /'keer sh@ ro/ which turned out to be Kershaw Road.

Even worse was being directed to /kahl 'yoor @z vil rohd/ which we discovered when arriving there and reading the street sign was Collier's Mill Road.

Then there was Mona's constant reference to Fort Dix as /"for 'diks/  (I'm trying to show a primary stress on the /for/ and a lesser stress on /diks/ rather than /diks/ being unstressed). There was no trace of the /t/ in "Fort".  This was almost as embarrassing as having to explain to those very nice MPs at the gate that we were civilians who were interested not in trying to enter the base but rather in directions how to get out of there.

   - Jim Landau

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Aside to Wilson Gray: if you look hard enough in the Harry Potter books, you will find a few insane gnomes.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"A frog, he would a-wooing go" is from Mother Goose.

I always heard "Billy Boy" as "I ha'e been to seek a wife/she's the joy
of my life..." and always assumed it was also Mother Goose, in which
case it is not to be expected to make any more sense than "Sing a Song
of Sixpence".

       - Jim Landau
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Does anyone know the slang term for waders: "Baptist xxx"?
(waders are those chest-high waterproof garments that people who work in cranberry bogs and Ocean Spray commercials and other wet environments wear).

_____________________________________________________________
Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.

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