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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Oh-ee.

Recently, a friend noted that every dog toy Scrappy owns has a name.  A name ending in the "ee" sound.  Ropey.  Cowie.  Squirrely (it's actually "Coonie", but it replaced the original "Squirrely").  Foxie.  Even the 'kids' have names ending in "ee".  Bernie.  Scrappy.  Cookie.  (Once)Slimmie.  Kramer.  Okay, almost all of them.  Krameree doesn't exactly roll smoothly off the tongue.  Even my humidifier is part of the theme - Reggie.  I refer to the homestead sparrow hoard as the Joneseys.  Should I be on speed dial to Dr. Freud?

Which reminds me of one of the many reasons I detested high school.  As a freshman, we were required to take Speech Class.  As far as I was concerned, it could have been Let's-Have-A-Root-Canal Class.  I was terribly shy and self-conscious in school - actually, almost right up to present-day.  An arty outsider who spent her weekends going to art museums and Gilbert & Sullivan operettas (cue in the violins...)  Our teacher was a sadistic bugger by the name of Mr. Higgie.  I suppose, given that name, he was hard-pressed to grow up any other way.  For our final exam, we were to choose a subject and give a 15 minute speech glorifying, edifying or not, our subject.  I chose Sigmund Freud.  Don't have a clue as to why I did.  The trouble was, I had never heard his name spoken.  It's an enigma to this day.  I hunched my way up to the podium and bravely soldiered on.  Pronouncing it "Free-ood".  In addition to Mr. Higgie, there was only one other person who was aware of my faux pas.  She was what passed as my only friend.  I had stammered my way through about 10 minutes of my speech, when she burst into fits of hilarious laughter, followed closely by Mr. Higgie.  Mr. H then pronounced, in his high, nasally voice, "Miss Wormersley, it is Froid.  Not Free-ood.  One would think you would know the difference if you have chosen this as your speech topic."  Needless to say, it was not my best moment or memory.  I did have the presence of mind to correct his pronunciation of my last name.  Which landed me a C- (I did have a thoroughly researched speech - complete with footnotes.)

My question is this -- am I the only one who does this?  Should I be looking for help-ee?

6 comments:

Jane @ Hard Work Homestead said...

I once heard a dog trainer say that you should name your dog something with an "ee" sound at the end because when you call the dog, your voice always ends on a positive 'up' sound and your speech softens. That helps with training the dog since that will make them want to come to you since their name sounds happy. So I think you were just on to it, before you knew you were on to it. :)

Unknown said...

We do to pets as we do to little carbon units...baby talk to get their attention. I had the habit too. It was 'ster' and yes 'see'. I knew when I talked to my beagle like Elmer Fudd I needed help ;-)
Weeuwwe!

Candy C. said...

I had to think about it but other than the dog, Buddy, nope, no -ees on the end of names here. Oh wait, how about me, Candy, and Jerry! LOL!!

Anonymous said...

Bella (one of our puppies) has three toys-Piggie (there is the eee sound) and Bear-bear. The good thing is, when I tell her which one to go get, she knows... Who says dogs aren't smart?

Erin said...

Haha! All our dogs and toys for that matter seem to end in "head". Squirrel Head, Loon Head, Coon-Head even Sprocket gets called "Sprocket-Head" quite often LOL!

Dirt Lover said...

Oh, how mean was that teacher??? I think he should have been fired, just for what he told you in front of the class.
I would think the reason you have names ending in ee are because you love your animals. No Freud needed.
~~Lori