Herald: Ch 4 going back to "WBZ" brand

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:58:17 -0500, Eli Polonsky <elipolo@earthlink.net> said:

> I also remember that one of the longtime sponsors of
> Community Auditions was Community Opticians, which
> caused me much confusion when I was four years old.

I can imagine!  (In English-language dialectology, an important
feature of North American dialects is the "cot-caught merger".  People
in the northeast tend not to have it, but much of the rest of the
country does.  For many CIC ["Cot Is Caught"] speakers, "audition" and
"optician" differ only in the articulation point of the first
consonant, which is probably difficult for a four-year-old to
distinguish.)

ObBroadcasting: There's one traffic reporter working for MetroShadow
in Boston who says "donton" (downtown) like a Pittsburgher.  More than
one of his colleagues says "eat" instead of "eight", which is
apparently the mark of a Philadelphian.  (And don't get me started on
the way the meterologists at AccuWeather mangle the name of their
profession on-air.)  It's almost enough to make one wistful for the
old Gary LaPierre "Doobita-bee-zee" testimonials.  (Actually, speaking
of that letter, one of the MetroShadow guys says it "dubh".)

-GAWollman