This week: this week is dirt; calendarically speaking; don’t party with strangers; gravity, entropy, sriracha with mayo; you can do it; beetles and pythons; the Chapman report; Gilliamesque; the first time; my favourite Martin; Goon squad; use the clapper; to Halifax and back; people love an explosion; an upside-down “O”; TV vets again; the farrier side; indifferent work; strong lap; post-Creatures; TRADITION!: the podcasting potato; Dork Shadows – Run the Jewels; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; back to Get Back; anglo-gourmand; zeugmania; reverse dragon; simply Marvel-ous; awkward eavesdropping; carnitine angels; Colonial smells; tide waits for no man; bagged milk; happy times; and, finally, ho-ho-ho!
Question of the Week: What is a word that you pronounced wrong for a very long time before you were corrected?
Sub-question of the Week: Egg nog: yes or no?
Thanks for listening.
Listener Joseph (Joe?) Boylan has some thoughts about Get Back and you can read them here.
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Thanks so much for the shout-out.
Love you guys, love the show. Happy Holidays.
Bring back Compleatly Beatles!
Joseph, wonderful writeup for “Get Back” on your “JMB Writes Stuff” WordPress page. I wholeheartedly agree with every word.
Thanks, Edward! Thank you for taking the time to read it and for the kind words.
The documentary was amazing. I thought it was near perfectly done.
Have a great holiday and New Year.
Hi David, Ian, and the Sneaky community,
Hope everyone’s well and you’re all looking forward to a happy, healthy, peaceful Christmas. I haven’t written for a while because I haven’t been able to answer any of your questions, but I have been listening. Honest! Anyway, this week I can answer a question (woo hoo!). One word I mispronounced for years is awry. I thought it rhymed with sorry. I’d read it and pronounced it like sorry, but I’d also heard the word and knew what it meant and sounded like. I just never connected the two. It wasn’t until I actually used it out loud, in public, that the confused looks and laughter of my colleagues made me realise my presentation really had gone awry.
We don’t have eggnog here in the UK. At least I don’t think we do. I think the nearest we have is a snowball. It’s a Christmas drink that is usually drunk by people that don’t really drink, but think they should join in at Christmas. It’s also given to kids as it’s hardly alcoholic at all. It’s made of advocaat and lemonade, and it’s sickly sweet. Nobody drinks it at all for 364 days of the year but come Christmas it appears on the supermarket shelves.
Have a Merry Christmas Dragons, and a very Sneaky New Year!
All the best, Scott x
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/classic-snowball
Season’s Greetings to Ian and Dave and all the Sneaky listeners! The first time I remember being corrected over a mispronunciation was in elementary school. I told a classmate I was reading a Nancy Drew book and had gotten to a chapter called “The Mysterious MISH-ap” and she told me, “It’s pronounced MISS-hap.” I got to wondering what that mishap was and why was it so mysterious. From the chapter title, I was able to find entire text of The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew #2) online. At the chapter’s end, Nancy and her father are checking out a bridge under construction when a suddenly a big driverless truck comes rolling towards them forcing them to dive into the river to escape! Was it just a mishap…or attempted murder?! Then there were two words I remember mispronouncing in my head as I was reading a YA book set in Ancient Greek and Roman times. One was the name “Chloé” which I imagined was pronounced “SHU-lo.” The other was a word for the tunic she was wearing which I pronounced “SHEE-ton” but was actually “chiton” (“KITE-en”). I had forgotten the book’s title so used the name and a few plot points to discover it was, appropriately enough, The Forgotten Daughter by Caroline Dale Snedeker. I find it fun when a GPS robo-voice mispronounces a local street name. As my sister and I were driving in Richmond yesterday, we snickered when the GPS lady told us to take the exit to “Ste-VEST-on Highway.” I say no to egg nog.
Hello, gentlemen. I have not a regular word, but rather a proper name that I mispronounced for a long time–though no one noticed this because . . . well, you’ll see. When I was in high school, I lived in England for a year, and there was a music teacher at my school there named Mr. “Bonds” (the reason for the quotation marks will become apparent.) I didn’t have him for a class, but I got to know him because I was a nerdy kid who liked to talk about classical music. (I still do, by the way.) I spent the entire year calling him “Mr. Bonds,” but one day near the end of the academic year, I saw his name written somewhere: B-A-R-N-E-S. I had heard other (English) students pronounce his name, and, of course, being English, they pronounced it something like “Bahns,” which I had heard as “Bonds.” After I learned of my mistake, I pronounced it with my North Carolina accent, with the typical exaggerated R. So I had spent the year pronouncing his name (and only his name) with an English accent without realizing it.
Egg nog: no. Reason number one: it’s disgusting. Reason number two: I once had a coworker who brought a homemade dinner for us on an evening when we both had to stay late in the office for some reason. The dinner was the fattiest lasagna I’ve ever had, and the “pairing” that she brought for us to drink with it was egg nog. (It was, I think, within a week or so of Christmas.) Since then, even the thought of egg nog threatens to bring on waves of nausea.
I hope that you both have a lovely Christmas. I’m off to Miami to spend it with my wife’s family: it’s not Christmas without Dominican family drama and a whole pig roasting in the backyard.
Be well,
John
“REMUNERATION.”
Considering the word concerns payment which often involves numbers and accounting, I logically assumed – until a few short years ago – that the word was RENUMERATION. I have accordingly both mispronounced and misspelt the word for years.
I need Dave to go back in time to ancient Rome and get this nonsense sorted out, that OK Dave? Please avoid falling shingles and slippery offal on the pavement. Resist telling them there’s a superior divergent vulgar offspring of their language, Spanish, on the cards in a few hundred years.
Remuneration, you’ve got to be kidding me.
Still, not as embarassing as mistaking “lethargic” for nauseous/nauseating when I did in a school debate.
Happy Xmas each and every Sneakers
Adios
Here we all are together for the Christmas Season once again! I assume that by the time I hear this being read, I’ll be on the other side of the gift giving and holiday dinner.
I can easily think of two names I got wrong in pronunciation for a few years before I actually heard them said or was corrected by someone in the know. I pronounced the names both comic artists John Byrne and Bill Sienkiewicz as John “By-run” and Bill “Sin-ko-witz” long before being corrected. John “Burn” and Bill “Sin-kev-itch” as they should be pronounced, didn’t take long to take root in my vocabulary. I still know some people that still say “Sin-ko-witz” to this day, I even knew a guy in college who referred to Walt Simonson as Walt “Simpson” but what do you do in that situation? I didn’t judge as long as I knew who they were talking about, so I said nothing to correct it. For the win, whenever someone asks Bill Sienkiewicz how to pronounce his name, he smiles and says, “Bill”. I’ve decided to do the same with folks who struggle with Draganski, which I’ve heard a thousand different ways. “Ed”, on the other hand is far more easier and correct.
I love egg nog, but it doesn’t love me back. It’s rich and sweet and it shouldn’t be part of my diet. My Dad told me he made egg nog cookies for Christmas, which is a new recipe for him, so maybe that’s the alternative I’ve been looking for!
I look forward to your thoughts on “Spider-Man No Way Home”, maybe you’ve already shared them earlier in the show…either way I can’t wait to hear.
To all my fellow Sneakers and Ian and David, relax, enjoy the holidays and make your season bright.
Words: I subtlety mispronounce words all the time (like expresso instead of espresso) but usually due to my natural accent and not because I’ve read them that way. I remember a director I once had used to hate how I would always say e(E)ither instead of ei(I)ther. To be far it was a Shakespeare play sans accents, and he felt the former pronunciation was too American.
Eggnog: YES PLEASE. I am a huge fan and the minute thanksgiving is over I break out the nog! I actually love coquito, which is often referred to as coconut or Puerto Rican eggnog. It’s very sweet and full of cinnamon and easy to make at home, which I have done for several Christmas seasons now. It is traditionally made with rum, but as a non drinker I say it’s great without.
Hope every sneaker and every dragon has a wonderful holiday season!
(late comment as I’m falling behind on podcasts!)
Asperger’s is actually an outdated term now and is no longer used by doctors as a diagnosis! Partly due to Dr. Asperger and his studies having roots to nazism. Nowadays it’s called “autism spectrum disorder.” The autism spectrum is often misunderstood as being a sliding scale from “a little autistic” to “very autistic,” and I certainly made that mistake too, until I read some helpful online materials. Here’s my favourite — it’s in comic form: https://the-art-of-autism.com/understanding-the-spectrum-a-comic-strip-explanation/
Good to know, thank you!