The Slice: Pronouncing it the way locals do

Let’s talk about a few Inland Northwest place name pronunciations.

Cindy Matthews remembers how to say the name of the home of the University of Idaho by recalling “No cow in Moscow.”

Lorene Lee recommends remembering the w in Moscow is silent and the ending sounds like the ending of Idaho.

Sometimes hearing a name pronounced incorrectly can remind you of the right way to say it. Kim Turner remembers asking about some real estate paper work when someone at a title company said, “Oh, you must mean this house on Cattle-Doo.”

That’s not how most say Cataldo.

Then there’s the matter of Cheney. Here’s a tip. “Cheney is not the same as former Vice President Dick,” wrote Pam Yarwood.

Patty Conway addressed the pronunciation of Colville. “I lived most of my life in southern Nevada where we had a marina named Callville Bay. I am trying to sound more like a northeastern Washington native, but still finding myself saying ‘Coalville.’ Pend Oreille was easy because it doesn’t look anything like the way it’s pronounced.”

In the matter of how readers peruse the comics page, Tom Solberg said he always begins with what he regards as the worst comic ever – “Family Circus.” He ends with his S-R favorite, “Non Sequitor.”

“Sally Forth” is Chris Boettger’s favorite, and that gets saved for last.

Larry Plager starts at the top left and goes down. Then he goes to the top right and reads down. “I read all of them except ‘Pearls Before Swine.’ ”

Fern Glass starts at the bottom and reads up.

Marilyn Farver starts with “Zits” and “Pickles.”

Here’s how Dee Hargitt does it. “I read ‘For Better or For Worse,’ then ‘Adam’ then skip across to ‘Pickles,’ up to ‘Zits’ and ‘Blondie’ and ‘Garfield,’ then back across to ‘Baby Blues,’ ‘Hagar,’ ‘Tundra,’ ‘Rose is Rose,’ then over to ‘Dennis,’ ‘Family Circus’ and ‘Off the Mark.’ ”

Quite a few others shared their comics reading patterns. But if there is an overall theme, it would be “To each his own.”

Slice answer: If the marmot sees his shadow today, “That means two and a half months of tax season.” – Dick Wandling

Today’s Slice question: How much of a seasonal adjustment is there when you give directions in winter (because of snow obscuring some signature landmark, prominent trees lacking identifying leaves, et cetera)?

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