Smiley Anders for April 24, 2008
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This story by Jennifer Prather shows how firmly the riverboat casinos have become established in our community’s psyche:
“About once a month my husband, 3-year-old son and I eat dinner at the riverboat casino buffet.
“We like the variety of foods served, and my husband usually has a coupon.
“Recently my son and his grandmother were shopping in the toy aisle of a local store.
“My mother-in-law picked up a big boat and asked him, ‘Would you like to have a big boat like this?’
“My son replied, ‘Maybe —does it have a buffet?’ ”
Hopeless cause?
“Tiger Phan,” says “Ralph Sims, “has long been Baton Rouge’s standard bearer for language and elocution.
“But, unfortunately, he may have hit the proverbial stone wall with the correct pronunciation of ‘Picardy.’
“Years ago, radio traffic reporters in town (many of them very young and unfamiliar with old Baton Rouge traditions) began pronouncing Picardy with the emphasis on the second syllable — perhaps believing it had some relation to Bacardi rum.
“Those same reporters also pronounced Fuqua as few-QUAH rather than the correct local way: few-QUAY.
“The corrupted pronunciations continue to this day whenever traffic reports are given.
“With pik-CAR-di and few-QUAH being mentioned over the airwaves several times a day for years now, it’s easy to see how those pronunciations could have caught on among many locals.”
Eventful broadcasts
Speaking of language, Keith “Bucket” Morris, the Port Vincent Sage, wonders why TV news and weather people feel the need to use the word “event” so much:
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