Words and Things

I went to an event last weekend and my wireless died before I could write about it here. So I have some more gems from the announcer... (I think the same as from the first event):

"I'm sorry about mispronuncing all these names, guess I shouldn't have had that third pint of guiness last night" (He was especially terrible at names)

"I'll try and put on my french teeth to say this name" (he then said the name in an attempt at a french accent)

"The aptly named Anxious Moments going quite quickly to fence 7" (my favorite)

The announcer also commented on the unusual facial hair of some of the men. Interestingly, nearly all of the younger male riders at the event have had long beards. I found out that this is not a new fad that has only struck irish eventers, but because they are extras in a movie, historically based in some sort of past time period, which requires beards. (I'm being purposefully vague because of the top secret confidential nature of the movie and not because my mind may have accidentally drifted slightly as someone explained the movie to me)

"John O'Brien's (not his real name, but I'm sure there was an o'brien at the event so... maybe his real name)over the first two beard intact...and he's not stopping for a shave at the water jump"

My other main source of entertainment is Britain's Best Dish, a cooking show with 3 delightful /brilliant /lovely judges, who are trying to pick britain's best dish for this year. There are starters, main courses, and puddings /desserts / the best part of the show.
I've noticed that every so often amongst the wonderful British accents* there comes a word that is pronounced totally differently.

Margarine turns into marje- er- een as if it were an exotic lady instead of a butter substitute.

And pasta is pronounced more like passta as in pass me the Parmesan, instead of pawsta (Side note, the word Pasta in fact originated in Italy which is nearby to France where basset hounds were invented. Basset Hounds have strikingly large paws. Hence Pawsta)

Oregeno and basil are said differently but just a pinch (sorry couldn't help it. There's only the one though because puns can be dreadfully annoying). the slightly different ring didn't do anything to aid or abate my appetite for the oregeno-full dish, but the pronunciation differences have provided a nice forum for me to use the words aid and abate.

There are lots of other cooking words with altered emphasis, dropped or added endings (fillet for instance is simply fill-it with t intact)etc. I think if I'm ever accused of saying a word incorrectly** I will tell the person it's simply the British translation.

*Except weirdly one girl from Chicago with no delightful accent at all. Weird.

**For instance, did anyone else think "chaos" was pronounced chaw -whoose, like the inverse of achoo (as in the sneeze noise)?

*** Couldn't "Words and Things" be the title of any post? What a useful and versatile discovery.