Oh, hello, Vincent

Bill:
Despite NBC's attempts otherwise, count me among those who will be referring to the host city of the Winter Olympics as Turin and not Torino.

 

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Tara:
And count me among those who is uncomfortable with the notion of playing a winter sport on the hallowed grounds of summer worship.

 

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Bill:
I know, how long before it's "Fenway Monstah Truck Day"?

 

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Tara:
Hey, nice gesture by Damon, huh, taking out that one-page Globe ad ala Bledsoe?

 

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Bill:
Yeah, but don't you think the timing is a bit off? I mean why now rather than right after he signed with the team that must not be named?

 

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Tara:
Good point. Maybe this is paht of a "Long Con"

 

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Bill:
Ah, not the best episode of Lost evah, but a damn fine one.

 

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Tara:
Despite his despicable qualities as a human being, I'm totally ready to let Sawyer be in charge of things for awhile. I mean he can't be any worse in the leadership role than Locke and Jack.

 

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Bill:
Yeah, Locke and Jack are about as good as running the island as Beattie and Bowden are to running a ballclub.

 

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Tara:
And did you love the Revenge of the Sith, Darth Hoodie transformation of Charlie?

 

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Bill:
Absolutely, as well as the return of Sayid from mourning.

 

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Tara:
I need more Eko and more Sayid.

 

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Bill:
Of course, this being Lost, we probably won't see Sawyer, Eko, or Sayid for the next 3 episodes but are instead treated to backfill stories on Libby or Gerome and Rose.

 

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Tara:
I'm surprised we haven't gotten a distracting flashback on Vincent the dog.

 

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Bill:
Heh, Vincent. If you see him run out of the jungle and then turn around and run back in, you know you're totally hosed.

 

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Comments

[Jason O.]

In keeping with stoic philosophy, I endeavor not to care about things I can't control. However, the "Torino" thing is symptomatic of a form of elitism that is particularly chafing. For example, when native English speakers pretend that they're NPR correspondents and pronouce place names in the native accent:

Chile: pronounced "Cheel-ay"
Budapest: "Bood-a-pescht"
Nicaragua: "Neek-a-la-gua"

Ooo! You're so fucking educated!! So erudite!! So well-traveled!!

[Jason O.]

Pardon the extra post, but the worst is Qatar.
"Gutter?"

Two years ago, the Emir of Qatar was on 60 minutes with Ed Bradley and he said "Kat-har" about 22 times.
I'll go with the Emir of the fucking country for the correct pronunciation, thanks very much.

[h.b.]

Yeah, that is probably my single biggest peeve about NPR. Drives me nuts.

Don't (or maybe didn't) the British consider it bad manners to pronounce non-English words with foreign accents?

I know this still holds true in the study of literature, where profs will pronounce "Don Juan" as "Don Jew-on" and "Quixote" as "Kwick-sote."

[Thomas Hobbes]

Isn't the name of the dog Vincent?

[louclinton]

Zen moment of the day:

Whay are there folds in h.b.'s Citgo sign?

[h.b.]

Vincent, yes!

I'm brain dead today.

[NV in SD]

Thank you for bringing this up, because ever since they decided it was apropriate to go with "Torino" I have had a amall tic just below my right eye. Do we call it Firenze? Venezia? Roma? No, no, and sometimes. Torino? I bet a large percentage of non-euros had never even heard of Turin, let alone Torino. I agree with your first statement Jay- I think the most chafing of all is when the elitists refer to it as "Barth-elona". Guh- that sounds so stupid coming out of a white person's mouth.

Hockey game at the Fens? Meh- as long as they don't f-up the field.

JD- thanks for the sentiment- now please go away (and work on your timing-you sold your soul to the devil almost two months ago).

[Babe Silverstein]

Any theories as to who posted this full-page, anonymous classified in the NY papers today:

"Take Me Home: DH tired of living lie as LF desperately seeks move from Boston. Must enjoy showing up pitchers, long strolls around the bases, and getting lost on my private planet. Call only if $eriou$."

[illegitimate son of dwight evans]

I for one like "Firenze". "Florence" sounds like someone's aunt from Palm Beach.

Hockey game at the Fens? Meh- as long as they don't f-up the field.

The Rolling Stones F'ed up the field good. Didn't stop them from doing it.

Johnny Mohammed's full page dedication was so transparent and phoned in one could only expect so much from a Yankee player. At least when Bledose left, the ad had the sense that he actually wrote it himself and not his publicist.

[mrbandw]

I was glad to see Charlie's transformation from Ewok-like goofball to Sith Lord-ish loner.

[Yawkeyway Bum]

FYI The Don Jew-on is pronounced that way by english profs, because that is how it was intended to be said by Byron when it was written. His was trying to poke a bit fun at the English for their butchery of non-english names, or at least thats how it was explained to me

[h.b.]

But that wouldn't explain all the other anglicism's in the study of literature.

E.g,
Quixote = "kwixott"
Sartre = "sart"
Donizetti = "don-ah-zetee"
Dordogne = "dor-dawny"

For that matter, we all say Paris as "Par-is" and not "Par-ee"

:)

[Babe Silverstein]

Boston's totally the new Paris, right? She's, like, all the rage in the tabloids.
The way Johnny Wanderer's 'Dear Boston' letter is being received, you'd think, like, MF Angelina Jolie seduced, and stole him away.
But we all know Boston, that sly little slut, was secretly crushing on Coco, like, forevah.
The Babe's no 'Dr. Phil,' but maybe if Boston acted a little more Jen Aniston stoic, and less, you know, all Miss Bittah and Betrayed, and Miss Johhny Effin' Who, somebody might have sympathy for her.
Maybe even, like, Oprah would interview Boston, and her tears would tell the world what a heartless jerk Johnny was.

[SoxontheBeach]

Johnny who?

[Bob]

My pet peeve.

(TV on-the-scene reporter, speaking in perfect English):

""...and then the firefighters extinguished the blaze. This is John

(In excruciatingly over-pronouned Spanish):

"...El-par-a-san-tana-maria..."

(Back to perfect English):

"...Channel Seven News. Back to you, Christy."

[IkeG]

Reminds me of the SNL with Jimmy Smits working at the office with Dana Carvey et al, when they order Mexican food and everyone but Jimmy is overpronouncing the menu items:
"En-chee-lah-thah"
"Bullllllllleeto"

RE: Damon --- I think he is just really afraid of getting booed.

[Kaz]

I have found in my travels around the world that the native people would *rather* I say places and names in the native accent.

Example: I have a close friend from Spain. She is from the capital of the Aragon region, Zaragoza (Jason O., you'll like this: It's name comes from Caesar Augusta). In "English" you'll often find the city written as Saragossa...but in Spanish, it's said 'Ther-a-go-tha' (Z makes a 'th' sound). Any time I would say it with a Z or S sound, I was reprimanded (sort of a "say it right or don't say it" mentality).

This is also the case for multiple European countries including France, Germany, Czech Republic, and Switzerland where the locals have corrected my Englishing of their proper names. I don't blame them, it's their places and I should say it the correct way for them just as I expect the same over here.

[Kaz]

Oh, and the greek guys running the pizza shop (University Grill) here on campus often correct the other customers:

A gyro spins like a top...
Your Gee-roh will be up in a few minutes.

[h.b.]

Kaz,

Yes, when you're in the country and speaking that language, of course, you go with the native language's pronunciation.

It's the same with maps. If the map is meant for US readers and I'm looking at say Germany, I expect to see Munich and not Muenchen. But if I'm looking at the same map meant for Germans, well, different story.

[Jason O.]

Kaz, right, and that's the specific difference: Native pronounciation while in the home country is fine. But if you're English-speaking and you do it in the states, chances are you have "Make trade fair" and "Kill your television" bumper stickers on your Volvo.

The Romans were cool about naming places, i.e., a small outpost on the Thames from Caesar's 2nd invasion was called Londinium.
Good Augustus reference, he (Caesar's grandnephew) finally ended the civil war, ruled for 40 years and was extremely important to the long term stability of the empire. And he is the guy who "found Rome made of brick and left it marble."

Ancient Rome is the shit.

[NV in SD]

Agreed- along those lines, I'm not going to call Afghanistan "أفغانستان" or Greece "Ελλάδα" because I don't have the slightest clue how to pronounce them.

If those don't show up right, please disregard my poor attempt at humor.

[Devine]

Wishing to speak up in the name of white people who pronounce certain things properly. I call an enchilada an "en-chee-lah-thah" because I grew up in south, south Texas where literally 90%+ or so of the population is Mexican (I was one of two white kids in a class of 270).

So, you know, give some of us a break. I pronounce baseball player names improperly now ("Ruh-mih-rez" rather than "Rah-mee-ress"), so I'm getting to know y'all's freaky-ass white lingo, but hey, I'm still gonna call a burrito a "boo-rrree-toh".

[h.b.]

Funny though, how even in Texas, it's never cut and dry. Not so much with Tex-Mex menu items but definitely with place names.

The main drag through Austin ia Guadalupe, but everyone, Latinos and Anglos alike, say "Gwahd-ah-loop" rather than "Wah-dah-loo-pay"

And Corpus Christi is pronounced "Core-pus" and not "Core-poos."

But Benevides, is pronounced by everyone according to the Spanish, as "Ben-ah-vee-dez" but Refugio is anglicized by everyone as "Reh-fuhr-eee-oh"

And of course, pretty much everyone agrees that Texas is , well, Texas, and not Tay-has.

There's probably a couple dozen other examples, no?

It's interessting how some break with the true Spanish pronunciation and others go Anglo.

I think one of the coolest things is hearing someone off Mexican-American rattle off if fluent Spanish then come right back with in English with the full blown Texas drawl. Now that's serious bilinguisimo.

[Devine]

An impressive amount of such knowledge for a yankee (no offense) indeed, h.b. (Is that an improper use of "yankee"? What specific geographic area are yankees from anyway?)

Indeed, lots of people, Mexican-American, white, etc. in Texas call it the "Ree-yoh Grand" and not the "Rree-oh Grahn-deh". Heck...I've known very, very brown people with the last name Guzman to call themselves "Guhz-mun" and not "Goos-mahn" (though they were from much further north in Texas than my birthplace).

I just don't want to get the stink-eye for rolling my R's or what have you. I grew up hearing it that way all my life; it's not a conscious decision on my part (in fact, I sometimes make a conscious effort to Americanize my Spanish words up here). I certainly don't get offended when I hear certain Spanish words get Anglicized. Not anymore, anyway.

And my normal accent is fairly standard American, not Texas-ized (Texas-sized?) at all.

[Kaz]

But if you're English-speaking and you do it in the states, chances are you have "Make trade fair" and "Kill your television" bumper stickers on your Volvo.

I hate Volvos. I love my TV. I have no thoughts on the trade situation (except that Manny is staying).

I still say Theragotha instead of Saragossa because I don't have a problem using the local tongue for proper names if I know what it is and how to say it. It's not a feeling of elitism but just a respect for the culture.

But the more I read, it seems that Turin (said "Tur-EEn" not "Tur-inn") is the appropriate name of the place, perhaps.

Thus proving, call it whatever you like, it won't matter to most and to those that it matters, they don't matter. :)

[Sean O]

That was my least favorite lost episode ever. Just horrible, melodramatic sludge. Ugh.

Next week better be the best ever, or the show has jumped.

[Kaz]

Here's a good one:

The website for the Aeroporto Internazionale Di Torino: http://www.turin-airport.com

[chuckle]

[Monty]

When I worked in a restaurant the latinos pronounced hamburger, amburguesa. So I asked one of em why not pronounce it ham burger since its an american word and he said, "you guys fucked up burrito..."
Does anybody read these this late in the day? Im eating lunch in CA so I dont get to this till everbody already has their say. By the way its blue skys and 70 degrees here-beautiful day for a hockey game!

[Ric]

BTW - whats up with Damon's "priviledge and an honor?" does he say, "it's raining dogs and cats out here..."???

[Bob]

Where are you in California, Monty?

[SoxontheBeach]

Sucks to be here, doesn't it, Monty?

Signed,
Stuck in Venice Beach

[NolaSox]

Here are some of my favorite New Orleans pronunciations of foreign-language based street names:
Chartres - Charters
Milan - My-lan
Calliope - Cal-lee-ope
Clio - C L Ten (reportedly although I don't think I have ever actually heard anyone say it that way, for the way it looks on street signs)
Terpsichore - Terp-si-core

And if you come to visit, please do us a favor and don't say N'Awlins.

[League Minimum]

I've always pronounced it "New O-leens", NolaSox. The 'r' disappears, just like all good r's should.

And "yankee" is a term to describe a New Englander. Well, at least it should be. No other part of the U.S. refers to themselves as "yankees" as opposed to others using the term to describe "people from the North". So "yankees" is just another thing from New England that the American League franchise from New York appropriated for themselves.