Words! & Maps!

So Tropical Storm Andrea brought a lot of rain to Richmond & has now moved on up the coast. I was sort of disappointed in that I would've liked more tropical for my time. Falling pineapples, mangoes, citrus descending from on high .... The key's quite clearly in the name, Andrea!

Conversations on sou'westers led onto my telling of the Lollipop Lady. Here it's a 'Crossing Guard': infinitely more proper & official-sounding but general consenus prevailed that the lady with the lolllipop stick is much more appealing albeit somewhat misleading.

Other words taught, proper pronunications conferred: 

Manky.  (Well, I'd already let them in on skanky. Now they can make it rhyme!)

Compost.  - Much like 'ga-rahge', I was keen to highlight that for me, there is & will be no '-pohst'. It's just -post & so I will not be subscribing to pronounce something faux-South.


Scone. (skon) - I made some. No-one was allowed to enjoy them until they asked for them in proper Northern speak, so spoken to rhyme with 'gone'.

: "a rich quick bread cut into usually triangular shapes & ..baked on a sheet.".... Rhymes with: blown, bone, clone, cone, crone, drone, flown, groan ...  

Och. You get my gist. 

Hah! Bad America, I will set you right. 
This is not a Scone.

We are not serving up shortbread nor cake.

Arugula. 
                  - Another of the greens, this one has passed me
by awhile because that's what eating K.Roger's American Blend does for both your vocabulary & your diet. 
                                                                              - a.k.a Rocket.

(Not this week, mind! This week, blessed by free greens
& friendly Radish, I made my own!) 

Also & informatively, this map of great divide. Being adopted into the American South, I am fluent, as & when required, in the understanding of soda, slaw, y'all, crawfish, tennis shoes as well as - thanks to the Midwestern influences around me - bubblers & crayfish. Thanks to Lauren, 'pee-KAHN' always appears as a bird's cry in my head now. 
  Then there's my oft-requested party trick by Molly - joining with NJ & MA in being able to pronounce apart & distinctly: mary, merry & mary. It's a gift, I tell you.

The Deepest Linguistic Conflicts in America.