bloggie

apparent proof that STB has web access.

What's with the "Jew York City" link?

Why wouldn't I be shocked to find out Beauchamp is a Jooo Hater too?

-click below for full size-:

Whoa! So it's not "BEE-chum"? (Malkin says "bow-SHOMP" and Goldfarb says "BOW-shamp").

By the way, the elderly woman at the TNR front desk in the video is not the usual receptionist (who's 20-something, like most of the editorial staff).

I dunno if she's a retired TNR employee from circa the Eisenhower administration, or if she's somebody's great-great aunt, or what -- I only met her a couple times and never found out what her story was -- but for whatever reason, she seems to be the designated fill-in for reception duty when the regular gal has the day off.

I say it like Michelle. I didn't know there was even any question about this. It's a Frenchish name, so I assumed one pronounces it Frenchily.

And "BEE-chum"? Who the hell says that, Throb?!

I say "BEEG-chump"...

The Fraffly family?

Ah. (Google gave me the general idea)

Now that we all know about Strine, it's time to reveal the true depths of
Professor Afferback Lauder's research.

He also discovered Fraffly - the language spoken by some denizens of the
south of England.

A sample:

"Sholleh you compy sirius. Shears a fess lecker bet lex, end four thombs.
Ay fender paw stiffleh noss yetting."

"Meddier boy, youm snofferget her femmlair are Bocksher people, enchies
fraffly clefferetter renching flozz."
(Lauder 1968:55)

Translating into English, we get:

"Surely, you can't be serious. She's a face like a battle axe, and four
thumbs. I find her positively nauseating."

"My dear boy, you must not forget her family are Berkshire people, and
she's frightfully clever at arranging flowers."

It's called Fraffly because of the way 'frightfully' is pronounced. 'Weh fraffly gled yorkered calm' translated into english is 'We're frightfully glad you could come'.

Ev! What the heck is going on with the "Reply" function all of a sudden? Have you tried it in Safari? All I get are a series of four strange Javascript alerts!

I see that you have the alerts commented out, but for some reason, my Safari thinks they should execute.

Sean-I'm messing around to fix a few niggling buglets. I just added a debug logging function to stop the annoying alert!ing.

Ahem:

There was a young fellow named Cholmondeley,
Whose bride was so mellow and colmondeley
That the best man, Colquhoun,
An inane young bolqufoun,
Could only stand still and stare dolmondeley.

The bridegroom's first cousin, young Belvoir,
Whose dad was a Lancashire welvoir,
Arrived with George Bohun
At just about nohun
When excitement was mounting to felvoir.

The vicar - his surname was Beauchamp -
Of marriage endeavoured to teauchamp,
While the bridesmaid, Miss Marjoribanks,
Played one or two harjoripranks;
But the shoe that she threw failed to reauchamp.

Wow, ouch! That's actually crashing Safari. Sean, don't reply to anyone ;-)

Anyway, I was trying to reply to Throbert. Scotty pronounces his surname "bow [as in 'bow and arrow'] champ." That's a hard ch, and a hard p.

I have this on the authority of his former fiancée, and other former friends.

That means Michelle and Goldfarb each got it wrong.

Oh, wait, I'm not 100% today. I've also pronounced it like Sean says. That's what I get for being influenced by the ladies.

Well, I'm sure that's very non-U.

Heh. When I had my phone conversation with the guy from Pajamas Media, he was totally Frenching it up, while I was saying "BEE-chum." This is the sort of thing that got people killed in Biblical times!

A few more limericks based on shibboleth-y British surnames:

An adventurous pirate named Menzies
Simultaneously boarded two denzies.
The Rover, Sir Ralph,
Said, "Do you think that's salph?
You don't want to damage your thenzies."

The Baron of Fawsley, Lord St. John,
Had a fine buckskin coat with a frt. john.
He said, "It was guthven
Me by Viscount Ruthven,
Who thinks I'm a cowboy, or t. john."

As a youngster, Sir Reggie Pole-Carew
Was a sissy, and dubbed the schole-farew.
He fled from Lord Tyrwhitt,
Who had dressed as a spyrwhitt,
For he found any ghost or ghole-scarew.

After reading the phonetic spellings a few times, I'm imagining something not far removed from the "New England lockjaw" of George Plimpton. (Also immortalized by actress Joanna Barnes as the airheaded Aryan heiress Gloria Upson, in Auntie Mame.)

Heh heh.

(I've removed the thing that was crashing Safari.)

Drudge actually linked to a blogger on this --Confederate Yankee via Pajamas Media. Is this a first?

And here's a couple more to add to Throb's list:

Featherstonehaugh

Magdalene

Thanks for the support, Fay!

Although, about "Magdalene" -- I know that "maudlin" historically derives from it, but is the name actually pronounced that way in Britain today? (i.e., "The Church of St. Mary Magdalene at Puddleby-on-the-Marsh")

Oh, fiddlesticks, I meant to type e.g., not i.e., since I made up the church name for the sake of example (Puddleby-on-the-Marsh is the fictitious hometown of Dr. Dolittle).

But anyway, if they say it as "maudlin" at Cambridge, I would guess that village churches named after the Patron Saint of Hookers would use the same pronunciation.

This helpful BBC Guide to Pronouncing British Place Names covers the whole field of bizarrely counterintuitive spellings, and includes some of the surnames listed above (e.g., Belvoir and Cholmondeley).

Hmm... I wonder if there's ever been a British porn film called Belvoir Felvoir?