You might think that these mispronunciations are unintentional -- maybe a result of poor upbringing or a diet high in polyunsaturated fats. Perish the thought! The NPR people like to hang around the political types in Washington, since that's where a lot of the news and most of their funding comes from. Most of these pronunciations come from politicians showboating on television. Frexample, "I don't want no nukular plant in my district," recites a Rhodes Scholar. The image being portrayed is one where "Idunno what it is, but it's baaaad. Real baaaaad. And I'm gonna protect you from it."
Every politician knows that socialism has been a bad word ever since McCarthy made a good living with it. So you call it Sossul Security and so you don't sound like a commie rat. Lawyers are generally bad news to politicians, so "loyer" can be used to avoid turning heads. Attorney can be used in certain circles, but it sounds too legalistic and polished for a down-home baby-kisser.
Meeeyullion, on the other hand, is NOT a political derivative of Million. It's strictly a sensationalistic term to over-emphasize an amount of money, something which any politician worth a dime (or a billion) would avoid like the plague.
While on the subject of Politics, here's the headline of the week: "Gore to Unveil Health Plan." There's an election coming! Tis the season to be folly! Yeah, yeah, it may be more than a year away, but that doesn't keep us (or at least the press on slow news days) from getting excited about it. Take a look at this headline. Al Gore, someone who will be in an election more than a year from now, is going to have a health plan. Man, now that's exciting! That's news!! This plan, of course, will have nothing to do with what will actually happen if he gets elected. (Remember Clinton's health plan, or the Republicans' "Contract with America?")
This plan will have very little to do with what Gore believes should happen with the country's health services. ("Health Services" is a good term I learned from last week's junk mail.) His health plan, when it's released, will be meticulously fabricated in every detail to appease as many political contributors as possible.
Notice that I did not say voters. I said contributors. Voters, myself included, won't remember or care what Gore is saying now by the time the November of 2000 rolls around. But if he can make some nice Democratic MDs happy enough to give him money, he can use that cash to advertise for my vote in a year or so. By the time he's elected, if that happens, his health plan will have little resemblance to its present form. It's the old, "Tell 'em anything to get elected, and then do what you need to/want to/feel like after you have the job" philosophy. This is what Socrates taught Plato's little brother in Athens. And while we're on Greek History, do you know what Socrates' last words were? "I JUST DRANK WHAT?!!!!!!"
The funny thing is, I didn't see any headlines for the actual plan. I guess the plan wasn't so good. Or maybe there was more pressing news the next day, like a tennis tournament.
The link of today is a picture of my house in Pryor, Oklahoma. You have to look really close:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth
If you have an email addresses with ViaGrafix.net or ViaGrafix.com attached to it, you might have had it mistaken for ViagraFix. This benefit is provided to our customers at no extra charge. A few months ago I got a letter from some lawyers at Pfizer, the people who make Viagra. They were informing us that someone in England has a company with the name Viagrafix. They were asking us to take them to court to make them change their name. This is because Viagra and Viagrafix are far enough apart in England that the Pfizer lawyers couldn't make them change their name, but we could since we had the name first.
Being the type of people who love legal processes, Mike and I trashed their letter and wrote to them thanking them for bringing it to our attention that they have a drug with a confusingly similar name to our company, and requiring them to stop selling that product immediately. This was officially scribbled on the back of a scrap piece of paper and signed by Mike. I'm quite appalled, but we haven't heard back from them.
The picture of today is Leann on Leann's Mountain. (Cathy, Leann Burger, and I went to Colorado last weekend.):
The other picture of today is of Cathy and Leann on Cathy's mountain, Mount Princeton. They both made it to the top!:
and, since it's thundering outside right now, here's a line of thunderstorms over Georgia, taken from 11,000':
Unimportant Notice:
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There are now more than 100 poor suckers on the junkmail mailing list! If you would like to be removed from this list, which is certainly understandable, please email mailto:vicepresident@whitehouse.gov and ask about Mt. Rainier.
