Five minutes, Faldage. That's all I want. While he's brushing his teeth, for instance. He won't have to practice long. Honestly. After he spits out his toothpaste.

The thumb on space bar is muscular, true, as is speech. However, when we speak, we are actively engaging our minds. When we hit the space bar, we are using an automated response. I don't have to think "hit space bar" when I'm typing. I think of the words, type them out quickly, listen inwardly to the sound of the sentence I type, but I don't think "space" in between the words as I read over them. When I speak, however, I do think more consciously than when I hit the space bar. Carbohydrate, for instance. I used to pronounce it "carbohydrit" instead of "carbohy-drate". Somebody corrected me. So now when I speak the word carbohydrate, the little speech coach in my brain reminds me to employ the ATE sound instead of the IT one. (Who knows--carbohy'drit' may be an acceptable pronunciation by now. Thus progresses the language in its many-garbed parade of possible sounds.)

I still believe:

1. President Bush could quickly modify his pronunciation of 'nuclear'; if he cannot with a modicum of effort, well, at least he gave it a good shot (five minutes--honestly--while he's walking downstairs, for instance); learning to pronounce "nuclear" for President Bush would not be as hard or time-consuming as Faldage would have us believe;

2. Nuclear is an important word with important ramifications; it should be pronounced correctly;

3. Public speaking on a national level requires some discipline from its speakers, and they should attempt to use standard pronunciations when speaking on topics of importance;



4. Mispronunciations are somewhat different from allowances made for accent;

5. The mind is more consciously engaged when speaking to an audience than it is when hitting the space bar.

6. Yes, Faldage, President Bush is engaged in "more important" things than learning to tweak a pronunciation of a word. But he's not engaged in those more important things all of the time. He relaxes. He satisfies his curiosity. He reads. He yawns. He rides a horse or two. During those more relaxed times when he is exercising his curiosity about the language, he might think to tweak his pronunication of nuclear. I would never suggest that he so tweak when he's actively engaged in a crisis, just as I wouldn't try to tweak a pronunication problem of my own when I'm teaching.

Best regards,
WW