Ji-Hacked Talk Thursday

Do you have those moments when your tongue over rides the sanity of your brain? Constantly, right? Because I know there is no way I can be alone in this.

For years I (cluelessly) said Police of Chiefs, Pa-tography, and (oh this one is special) Siuslaw Pioneer Museum (for those of you outside of Western Oregon, it is Sigh-U-slaw Pio-neer Mu-se-um) I think I continually mangled it for years something like, Siuslaw Piner Musum – who knows. Worse, I was continually aware of the blunder in my enunciation, began fearing having to say it once, let alone on air several times each day. I often combine words to make up the new Cele-Lexicon, sans the definitions because I usually can’t remember what I was trying to say.

One poor man gets his name mangled by me each and every May. Now you would think Lukens would be easy to say, Lu-kens. But oooh no, I always say, Luck-ins. Mangle my name and I will laugh, it’s pretty common to mangle my name, but for others I understand it’s painful.

Dealing with a client this afternoon, a long time client, I totally screwed up the name of the client’s business AND the name of their event (that part didn’t bother me quite so much. I said “cun-fluence” instead of “KON-fluence,) but Winchester Bay Reedsport Chamber of Commerce, well that part was just all wrong.

In radio you get to mangle names every day, it’s not like the week’s latest releases come with phonetic spelling. Example: Colbie is pretty straight forward, but Callait? I’m told it’s pronounced Ca-lay, it can’t be French because then it would be spelt Calais. WTF? Abenaa? Please, anyone. Chantal Kreviazuk? I had one the other day I adored, Ombya (it’s pronounced ohm-by-ya, I love the ohm-by part it hums, so African.) I use to love to roll names off my tongue, try it… Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeine (nasty guy, great name) François Mitterand, and some of those Russian names, wow. Now I can say Houshmanzada, Haloti Nada, and Polumalu, but Kreviazuk? C’mon. And how the heck should I know that Botti was pronounced Body? Those silly Brazilians. Who would name their child Dido? Wasn’t Dweezil bad enough?

It reminds of the time when my husband and I were at a gathering. I (strangely was telling a story – not a good thing) referred to my husband as Bob. For the record not his name. Just as fast Bill turned and said, “No, Bob divorced you.” And so did Bill in the long run. I’m thinking my faux pas wasn’t the cause, just a symptom. No more B’s for me, I changed letters when I married Ducky.

Tangle-tongued (to match my feet)
Cele