LBS

[Jonathan Lighter]

Same thing with "oz."  I said "oz" until - as soon as an adult appeared - I
asked what it meant.

I can't say that the explanation made any sense, but from then on I
pronounced "oz." as "ounce(s)."

BTW, the Amber Alert voice sounds much like the NWS Alert voice.  If he's a
robot, vocalizing a programmed script, "el - bee - ess" makes sense. But
only if he's a robot.

That woouldn't explain the diluted meaning of "tornado," however.

JL

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 11:11 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: LBS
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 5/14/2011 10:45 AM, Neal Whitman wrote:
> >In the 70s I read a Peanuts cartoon from probably the 60s, in which
> >Linus or Lucy was telling Charlie Brown about learning in school
> >that there were 16 ozzes in one lib.
>
> Its book buyer must have liked L. Frank Baum.  And one or two of Ruth
> Plumly Thompson's.
>
> Joel
>
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