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It’s Vlaining Outside
I just looked out my window and saw it was vlaining. Now, you’re probably thinking, “Stad, it’s pronounced raining.” I know. I was just thinking about our daughters when we first brought them home from Russia.
Although they learned English fairly quickly, there were some words they had trouble pronouncing. “Rain” was “vlain” for a while (there must have been a lot of Vladimirs working at the orphanage). Another word was “punkuter” for “computer.” Middle daughter used to say something was “cruge” (huge). Later, she started using the more common “ginormous”—and still does.
I remember when I was growing up, I had trouble with the number “three.” I always said “free” instead. It drove my mother crazy because I could pronounce “throw” correctly. To this day, I still intentionally mispronounce the word “champagne” like The Continental on SNL—”cham-pag-ne”—as a mnemonic whenever I have to write it (as I did just now).
What words did your kids have trouble with? And do you have any clever mnemonics you use to help with spelling troublesome words?
And it’s still vlaining . . .
Published in General
Ever heard a supposedly professional mechanic refer to (at least in the past, may not be a thing any more) the PVC valve on an engine?
PVC is Poly-Vinyl Chloride, a plastic.
Positive Crankcase Ventilation valve is PCV.
For my younger brothers and sister it was “pasketti.”
Oh, and “hangubber,” “hangubber bun,” “hangubber helper”…
There’s an old SNL bit about that…
NSFW probably.
Speed Limit.
TY!
I feel a little dim now.
My mom made frosting for a cake one time, and either substituted evaporated milk for condensed milk or the opposite. The frosting tasted great, but it set hard. It came out crunchy. I liked it.
That might be good, if one is expecting it, sort of like sea salt caramel.
He only needs to know how to say “Hoo Rah” really loud.
I think salt improves the taste of caramel when mixed in, in small amounts, not so much when sprinkled on top.
I’ve had stuff with frosting that had a bit of a crunch on the outside, that was good. But it was intentional. I don’t remember what it was called.
Many candy manufacturers do sprinkle it on top these days.
But probably not as much as Mom would sprinkle of sugar on the Snickerdoodles.
It did not enhance the Snickerdoodle Flavor.
Fondant
Just seeing the title of this post made me think of this scene.
I don’t know why the non-word “vlain” made me think of “to blave,” but it did.
When I was a kid, we’d have cinnamon toast, buttered toast with sugar and cinnamon mixed sprinkled liberally on top. Then we’d put it in a skillet and melt the sugar. Crunchy and delicious. This was before we got a toaster oven. Now it’s my favorite part of a Crème brûlée.
I’ve told this one before.
My second semester calculus professor was Scottish, and this was his first job in the US. We were going over trigonometric derivatives when he asked, “What is the derivative of cot x?” However, he pronounced “cot x” as “Kotex.” Several of the women in the class either blushed or suppressed laughter. After two or three days, he started using the correct pronunciation. I’ve always wondered who had the guts to tell him . . .
Remember “i before e except after c?” Well, you can always say, “It’s weird that the rule doesn’t apply to ‘either’ or ‘neither.’ “
It’s “pisketti” . . .
A fast Yugo . . .
Do what I do. Wait for someone else to ask . . .
One of our TAs was from Malaya, and he went on and on about things “equaling deero” and it took a while (for me) to realize what he was actually saying.
No, “fast Yugo” is not the Speed Lemon, it’s an oxymoron.
My grandson’s dad, when he was small, used to ask for lurgik…meaning yogurt. He did that for maybe a couple of weeks, and then got his tongue around the consonants, but I still think “lurgik” when I see it in the fridge.
And I still call one of his early childhood buddies “Ah-gegs-gander,” and since my newest grandson shares the name, I’m…continuing.
I was kind of hoping my grandson would stick to “GAGO!” his first enthusiastic version of “Granny.” Sadly, he can now say “Granny” very clearly, and is teaching it to his sibling/cousins.
Hey, you get to choose the honorific and if ‘Gago’ is what you want, you should insist on it.
The other grandparents wanted to be called nana and opa. Thanks to my oldest granddaughter, they are nana and boopa.
We are in a period of high grandparent nickname inflation. When I was a kid there was grandma, grandmother, and granny. Grandpa, grandfather, and grandpop. Maybe gramps. Now there must me a hundred nicknames with more every month!
I had a granny and a grandmother and granddad. I passed on granny because all I could think of was Beverly Hillbillies. I go by grandma, which they say as gramma., silent d.
How about big-mama?
I think “speed lemon” is an oxymoron too . . .
My wife and I still say “vlain” . . .