Err

#79: Some people find ironing very therapeutic, Razzak. You should try it. How did you make your executive? Salt dough? Or did you knit him/her?

LaGrande, get with. We cutting edge people often leave out the second of obvious like "executive decision." In today's it's a known that time is.

Time is, time is. Spread the.

Thanks for asking, LaGrande. I was wondering what executive Razzak was talking about too. I guess I'm just not cutting.

By the way, I say "boy" for buoy.

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>I think the first time I posted here was with reference to "buoy". I may be the last American alive who makes it a homophone with "boy".<hr></blockquote>I pronounce it "booey" so as not to be stared at (I live across the street from a harbor where there are hundreds of them), but I heard it as "boy" when I was a child. As far as I know, Lifebuoy soap is still pronounced "Lifeboy," and those of us old enough to remember World War II newsreels remember a device called a "breeches buoy" (pronounced "breeches boy") that was used in some kinds of rescues at sea.

Well, LaGrande, I guess I'll stay on your **list for awhile. I pronounce "buoy" the same as MOST Yanks, correctly, i.e., "booey". But I think that good, American English has accepted the "boy" pronunciation where bouy in in some combination: Lifebuoy, breeches buoy, buoyant, buoyancy, etc.

But now I'll give you one that MOST Yank REALLY DO mispronounce. "Quai (or Quay)" is correctly pronounced, and yes, I do, as "key", but MOST Yanks pronounce it as "quay": think "qu" as in queen and "ay" as in bay (I'm at a loss as how to phonetically write this pronunciation). That's one that runs chills up and down my spine when I hear it (all too often).

But why would it have to be "key"? Isn't it the same as French "quai"?

shilgia, #86, Beats me, but I don't speak French (and don't have a handy on-line pronunciation guide for French) so I really don't know what the correct French pronunciation is. BUT in all the English-speaking places in the world where I've been, it's pronounced "key" rather than the common American "quay".

LaGrande, Having crossed lances with you more than once, in a very friendly way, naturally, I'm surprised that I haven't seen any comment from you on the thread "Dates", here on SiT.

And, NO! You haven't "unseated" me yet...but you've sure come close. :-D

Back to ##13 and 18 for half a.

I just read a review of this new book, a history of It in the Elinor Glyn sense. The review starts with a mention of Elinor Glyn and ends with a mention of her sister (under her professional dressmaking name, Lucile). Funny how these things crop up.

The review is illustrated with a 1926 photograph of Clara Bow, who became known as "the It girl" after starring in It. (I don't know if that was actually based on Eleanor Glyn's It and Other Stories, where the term was coined). If anyone is wondering whether Clara Bow actually had It by today's standards, see page 26 of the TLS for September 7.