The Slice: Bing’s autograph looks a lot like dad’s

Let’s start with another brush with Bing.

In 1949, when she was in eighth grade, Patty O’Brien learned that her father was going to play golf with Bing Crosby. She begged her dad to get the entertainer’s autograph.

When her father returned from the links outing, he presented her with a piece of paper adorned with the signature “Bing Crosby.”

She was thrilled.

A few years later, O’Brien noticed that the autograph closely resembled her father’s handwriting. In fact, the B in Bing looked exactly like how her dad made a B when signing his own name, Bud.

“I should have figured it out sooner,” said O’Brien.

Confronted with the evidence, her father refused to confess. “But there was a twinkle in his eye.”

Silently mispronouncing a word in your head so you can remember how to spell it: Several readers mentioned “Wednesday” and “February.”

Karen Yancey said she does it with “quinoa.”

I hadn’t been thinking of place names, but Joan Matlack brought one up. “I say ‘Pend Or-i-el’ for ‘Pend Oreille,’ ” she said.

Janet Culbertson mentioned another. “My Belgian born, French speaking mother used many crutches to help her learn English. One of my favorites is the pronunciation of Connecticut. Mom always brags that she can spell it because she pronounces it CONNECT TEE CUT.”

Me? I have a list of words that includes “poinsettia” and “pterodactyl.”

Slice answer: “How much time does having short hair save a person over the course of a year?” wrote Renee Resberg. “Let me tell you, not much. You don’t have to do much with it but you have to get a haircut every four weeks.”

Tweaking a bad decision: You probably should not try to imitate a Southern accent. Chances are, you will sound ridiculous. But if you must, at least do not refer to an individual as “y’all.”

That expression refers to two or more persons.

Today’s Slice question: If you went on a nonviolent but high-profile crime spree, what nickname would the police or media give you while you remained at large?