The Top 40

I've seen the President's pronunciation ridiculed around the intarwebs.

I think a mistake is being made.

I have heard this pronunciation more than a few times in medical circles.

I think it is an ugly pronunciation, and I don't use it.

But I don't the President made it up, and using it doesn't prove that he is an idiot.

He isn't an idiot. He is the most successful leftist President ever.

He is only a failure if you think his goal is actually to help Americans and America.

Once you understand, really understand, that his goal is to "fundamentally transform" America, and by so doing, weaken America and hurt Americans, you realize that he is really very smart and very effective.

I think he's a retard on a leash.

@Punditarian — faint sounds of Sympathy for the Devil?

Dead Man Walking. Say, ain't that the name of a rock group? Should be.

My uncle Louie Lozko, we all called him "Letsgo Lozko", he raised bantam chickens. He said that when a chicken was slated for the stewpot it would start walking around and squawking real weird.
"dem chickens, dey know tings".

Phony intellectuals do this all the time- deliberately insert into their speech some exotic pronunciation of a common word. Here's my shot at coining a new word- I call it a Booberism. The idea is to let you know that THEY know the true foreign origins and esoteric usage of a certain term. (and that you don't)They love to break into Latin vowels and rolled "R"s when they talk about Mexican food. Makes 'em sound all kinds of smart.

JWM

I was out running errands, in the line at Walmart for meds. Behind me comes this guy, looked like he was on a Polack bowling team. Mid-forties, wouldn't know matching colors if it bit him in the butt.
"Whassatcha got?" He asks, pointing to the cafe curtain rod I'm holding.
I spoke not a word, showed him.
"Oh" he sez, "thought it was one a them canes. My buddy has one with four feet".
"Yes, when we get older we lose equilibrium." I said (my mistake).
"Oh" he sez, "I lost my equilibrium when I had that aneurism, back in '97."
"You're lucky to be alive" sez I.
"I dunno, I'm waiting for them to come get me. Y'know, go up into space".
"I'm five foot ten." I said with finality, "you won't need any money up there."
He nodded sagely and I saw behind his eyes he'll be chewing on that for a while.
The art of conversation, one of my strong suits.

JWM, as I mentioned, this is not really a mistaken or exotic pronunciation. It is a variant that is sometimes heard in medical circles - not often by the doctors, but used by others.

chas, your comment about chickens reminded me of a haunting poem by the Wright Brothers' friend, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the Soliloquy of a Turkey:

Dey ’s a so’t o’ threatenin’ feelin’ in de blowin’ of de breeze,
An’ I ’s feelin’ kin’ o’ squeamish in de night;
I ’s a–walkin’ ‘roun’ a–lookin’ at de diffunt style o’ trees,
An’ a–measurin’ dey thickness an’ dey height.
Fu’ dey ’s somep’n mighty ‘spicious in de looks de da’kies give,
Ez dey pass me an’ my fambly on de groun,’
So it ‘curs to me dat lakly, ef I caihs to try an’ live,
It concehns me fu’ to ‘mence to look erroun’.
Dey’s a cu’ious kin’ o’ shivah runnin’ up an’ down my back,
An’ I feel my feddahs rufflin’ all de day,
An’ my laigs commence to trimble evah blessid step I mek;
W’en I sees a ax, I tu’ns my head away.
Folks is go’gin’ me wid goodies, an’ dey ’s treatin’ me wid caih,
An’ I ’s fat in spite of all dat I kin do.
I ’s mistrus’ful of de kin’ness dat’s erroun’ me evahwhaih,
Fu’ it ’s jes’ too good, an’ frequent, to be true.
Snow ’s a–fallin’ on de medders, all erroun’ me now is white,
But I ’s still kep’ on a–roostin’ on de fence;
Isham comes an’ feels my breas’bone, an’ he hefted me las’ night,
An’ he ’s gone erroun’ a–grinnin’ evah sence.
‘T ain’t de snow dat meks me shivah; ‘t ain’t de col’ dat meks me shake;
‘T ain’t de wintah–time itse’f dat’s ‘fectin’ me;
But I t’ink de time is comin’, an’ I ‘d bettah mek a break,
Fu’ to set wid Mistah Possum in his tree.
Wen you hyeah de da’kies singin’, an’ de quahtahs all is gay,
‘T ain’t de time fu’ birds lak me to be ‘erroun’;
Wen de hick’ry chip is flyin’, an’ de log ’s been ca’ied erway,
Den hit’s dang’ous to be roostin’ nigh he groun’.
Grin on, Isham! Sing on, da’kies! But I flop my wings an’ go
Fu’ de sheltah of de ve’y highest tree,
Fu’ dey ’s too much close ertention—an’ dey’s too much fallin’ snow—
An’ it’s too nigh Chris’mus mo’nin’ now fu’ me.

http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/192/lyrics-of-love-and-laughter/4002/soliloquy-of-a-turkey/

Punditarian: most excellent. Thanks.

You're welcome, chas. Dunbar lived a short and I think mostly unhappy life, but his poetry is quite beautiful. Like Joel C. Harris's work, however, I think his representations of late XIXth century "ebonic" speech put people off.

I love this line: "W’en I sees a ax, I tu’ns my head away."

How wise that is, how well-observed, and how true of so many "turkeys" today.