Dear caradea: Nobody on the board has a command of rhetoric inferior to mine, but I keep trying to learn a bit. Your "stond" vs "strand" seems to ring a bell - I think I saw it in a poem, with Scottish dialect,rhyming with "hond" for "hand".
I like the example in the byu site - "A pun is its own reword"
As to Brit pronunciation, I leave that to some of our UK friends.

Max tells us unaccented English is only spoken here

So, do y'all go to Earl's Academy of Accents to learn how to speak the way y'all do when you're visiting other places?

So, do y'all go to Earl's Academy of Accents to learn how to speak the way y'all do when you're visiting other places?

Nope. YOU speak accented English ...

YOU speak accented English ...

Well, yeah. I know that cause Rubrick told me. Maybe you should FtF with him sometime.

Hey, Faldage: Does FIF mean "Favorite Incoming Finger?" A gay urologist told us he offered to refer one of his prostate massage cases to an urologist whose office was nearer to the patient, but the patient declined on the grounds that "Nobody's got a finger like yours!"

Sponsors of The Prairie Home Companion on USn NPR:

http://phc.mpr.org/performances/19970503/97_0503ACCENT.htm

Garrison Keillor: We'll continue with our English Accent Contest after this word from Earl's Academy of Accents in
the Maplewood Mall. Earl-- --

TR (SWEDISH): Yeah, here at Earl's we teach, oh, I'd say about fourteen different accents, thirteen or
fourteen, and you know, I'd say that the English accent is about our most popular one, wouldn't you say
that, there, Inge?

TR (SWEDISH WOMAN): Oh yeah, it's English, that's for sure. Gotta be English then.

TR (SWEDISH): Yeah, we used to get more for the French, but now it's the English. Yeah.

GK: Very good. Earl's Academy of Accents in the Maplewood Mall. A good accent could be helpful to
your career ---- if you're a dancer or a violinist and you happen to be from Bismarck, N.D., don't be from
Bismarck, be from St. Petersburg. It'll help.

TR (RUSSIAN): I used to be from Bismarck, and now I'm from St. Petersburg. It really helped me a lot.

GK: Of course it did. If you're making a career in the food industry, you don't want a voice like this---

TR (MIDWESTERN): So howdja like that Beaujolais then, huh? That hit the spot?

GK: You want a voice like this----

TR (FRENCH): The wine, monsieur, I think you will appreciate the body, the texture, the --- the--- what
do you call it--- the (FRENCH GIBBERISH)-----

GK: Or you want a voice like this-----

TR (ITALIAN): This Barolo, this is really a beautiful wine, so--- it's so--- so---- (ITALIAN
GIBBERISH)----

GK: You don't want this voice.

TR: (MIDWEST) I got a Barolo, I got a Chianti, they're both real good. Real fine.

GK: And of course if you're not bright, if you have no aesthetic taste whatsoever, if you're obsessed with
violence and wealth and kinky sex, but you still want to seem cultured among midwesterners, this accent
will open every door----

TR (BRIT): Oh, what a pleasure to see you. Dear, dear, dear. Oh my. How thrilling. How divine.

GK: No matter what you're selling, you can get a higher price with that voice.

TR (BRIT): These are our tea cosies and they're hand-woven by vicars' wives in Lancashire.

GK: Useful for authors too.

TR (BRIT): I'd like to read a few lines from my novella, Fearsome Hove The Twilight Hour.

GK: Earl's Academy of Accents. Maybe they can help you.

TR (SWEDISH): Yeah, give us a call and we'll see what we can do.

(TRUMPET FANFARE)

That's Eff tee Eff, Dr. Bill. Stands for Face to Face. It's for when you meet a cyberfriend in Real Life (RL).

... cases to an urologist whose office ...

Since urologist is pronounced with a Y sound at the beginning, shouldn't this be a urologist, even though the word begins with a vowel?

Dear Angel: I am consistently inconsistent. Next time I'll do it your way.

Agreed, Angel. Otherwise it would be impossible to distinguish aurally between:
1) an urologist;
2) a neurologist;
3) Anu, giver of the Word (Anu, all-logist)

Dear Keiva: Unless I've got my mouth full, you can tell when I'm saying "an urologist" and "a neurologist". And I avoid talking with my mouth full. Or even less than half full. Or even any food in my mouth.

That's fortunate, dr. bill. You surely can imagine, even more than I, the potential confusion if the hospital calls in a neurologist when a(n) urologist is required, or vice versa. Confusing medical specialites can have great consequence!

(e.g.: As a jewish mother met, at the airport, the plane bringing her daughter home from exotic lands, there also deplaned a man dressed in feathers with exotic markings all over his body and carrying a shrunken head. "Mom, meet my new husband," said the girl in greeting. Gasped mother, "Sadie! Sadie! I told you to marry a rich doctor!")

Hospitals do funny things. When I was in hospital in Camp Grant in WWII, Orthopedic ward was run by cardiologist, and Pneumonia ward was run by orthopedist. Fortunately they were allowed to cooperate.

Which reminds me of yarn I heard about situation in WWII, when an orthopedist in charge of neurology ward applied skeletal traction to case with fractured cervical vertebra by means of of a yoke attached to a Kirschner wire (a thing like a long knitting needle) from above one ear to the other. The med student who told me this at times was not a stickler for exactitude. He claimed his brother who was Army doctor told him about it.But it makes a good story.

>is it listed in the Book?

nobut.
antistœchal - arranged in opposite ranks, arrayed against
(from Gk antistœchos, in opposite rows)

YOU speak accented English ...

Well, yeah. I know that cause Rubrick told me. Maybe you should FtF with him sometime.

Ha, ha. I did, though, didn't I?? That was one bit of the diner converastion I forgot, Faldage. Thanks for reminding me. I'm not immune to the accented English myself with my brogue.

As for antistoecons such as strand and strond Yeatsian assonance comes to mind. Anyone who's read, seen the stageplay or the wonderful film Educating Rita will be familiar with Rita's definition of assonance - "Yes, it means getting the rhyme wrong."

Rubrick told me

I did, though, didn't I?

And pinned down a majority of the influences, too, I might add, to the amazement of both the lovely AnnaS and me.

As for antistoecons such as strand and strond Yeatsian assonance comes to mind. Anyone who's read, seen the stageplay or the wonderful film Educating Rita will be familiar with Rita's definition of assonance - "Yes, it means getting the rhyme wrong."

Great film. I empathise with it quite a lot, since I taught in a polytechnic where an awfully high percentage of the student population were "Ritas".

Should be "was". Has Faldage been sending you do-it-yourself nit-picking kits, by any chance?

"an awfully high percentage of the student population were "Ritas". "
Dear MaxQ, I am happy to go on record as agreeing with you. I think perhaps it is because I have a mental picture of two groups of persons, and hence the plural seems natural.

an awfully high percentage of the student population were "Ritas".

A high percentage "were",or "was"? This is not pedantry....

hehehe, Max. When it comes to pedants you are outranked. Well, if I may state my obvious, the alternative is "an awfully high percentage of the student population was 'Rita'."

You pays yer peso and you takes yer choice.

n awfully high percentage of the student population were "Ritas".

This is a simple question of grammar by form or grammar by meaning. If you opt for the former you are compelled to say that Buffalo is expecting 10 inches or fewer of snow.

Yeatsian assonance

The strand/strond pair exhibits not assonace, but consonance (and alliteration, but that's not to the point here). Assonance would be, e.g., strand and strap.

Well, you wanted pedantry.

If you opt for the former you are compelled to say that Buffalo is expecting 10 inches or fewer of snow.

Pickin on Buffalo again? only 10 inches? drat!

I am now scratching my head trying to figure out my my "are"s from my "is"s.

Yes, I always knew you had trouble telling your arse from your elbow!

I was aiming too high.

Depends if you want quantity or quality laughing at your jokes Max

who was it said "Never overestimate the reading public..." or summat like that? go, Bill!