I was incorrectly “corrected” twice in the same night: 1. I think I met the most obnoxious girl in our city. I used the word “eccentricities” while conversing with her, and she said to me, verbatim, “You know, if you’re going to use big words to try and impress me, you should at least know how to pronounce them correctly. It’s (phonetically) ‘essentricities.’” I had to pause for a moment to form a response to this remark. Then I said: “First of all, I have absolutely no interest in impressing you. I do, however, have an interest in using our language correctly. If you are accurate in correcting me, then I suppose I should thank you. Secondly, I am very skeptical that my pronunciation is not at least an accepted alternative. Dictionaries evolve to reflect how people use language, and I have heard many educated people pronounce “eccentricities” the same way that I do. I will look it up later.” At the end of our conversation (during which she repeatedly bragged about herself and criticized my interests) she made it clear that she was currently single and handed me a piece of paper with her contact info on it. Because this girl was extremely attractive - and knew it - I’m sure she expected me to fall all over her like every other guy. Instead, I smirked at her and said, “You won’t hear from me…but I’m glad I impressed you.” As it turns out, her “correction” is not even an accepted alternative. 2. At a party, my buddy Tony Smith sang the first line of the song “Ebony and Ivory.” “Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, eh?” I said. “No,” Tony replied, “It was the guy with blue eyes and Stevie Wonder.” “Frank Sinatra?” I asked. “Yeah, Sinatra,” Tony said. “Are you sure?” I asked. At this point, several other party goers chimed in and agreed that it was Sinatra and Stevie Wonder. “I’m only familiar with the McCartney version.” I said, “I could have sworn that he wrote the song, too.” This group of people further insisted that Sinatra authored the song and originally wanted to perform it with Sammy Davis Jr. Unfortunately, they explained, Sammy Davis Jr. died before Sinatra could record it with him and Stevie Wonder was brought in as a backup plan. I was skeptical, but the details were so evolved that I thought I might just be ignorant about the song’s origin. So when I got home, I looked it up: it turns out that McCartney wrote it and performed it with Stevie Wonder, while Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. had nothing to do with it. And now, Tony, I really want to know where you got your crazy ideas :o) I actually have a guess, too - an old SNL parody that perhaps you confused with the truth… videosift/video/Classic-SNL-Sinatra-Stevie-Wonder-sing-Ebony-Ivory
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:18:44 +0000
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