CyberDroog wrote:

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:31:12 GMT, wombn <wombnhearmeroar@comcast.net>
wrote:

people who confuse the two pronunciations drive me BATTY

That one has irritated me also.

What I hate is when people continue using the wrong term, or pronunciation,
even after they have been told. I once had a supervisor who used to say "I
can't phantom that..." I tried explaining to him that the word is
*fathom*, but he just couldn't get it.

He did it with all sorts of words. He'd hear a new word and begin using it
in complete inappropriate ways. Think about forcefully dragging a cheese
grater up your bare shin... that's what this guy was like to my nervous
system.

--
REBEL, n. A proponent of a new misrule who has failed to establish it.

- Ambrose Bierce

What I can't phantom is how people without the nu-cue-lus of a clue
concerning the cachet that made the saying popular in the first place
insist that,
"If you think that, you've got another thing coming" is the only proper
response when you want a long way to say, "Oh yeah?". If you point out,
with the patience of a saint, that "...you've got another *think*
coming" would be the only construction to inspire natural, spontaneous
adherents because it's, um, catchy (heh), they will point out, with
equal patience, that you must be in danger of loosing your mind if you
think that. Such people are usually convinced that their forte (rhymes
with port, don't you know) is correct pronunciation and grammer. Like me.
<rueful smile>
(Darn! I forgot to work "jew-ler-ry" in there somehow. And
"real-uh-ter". Oh well.)