Subj : Phonetics was: Cats [1] To : Dave Drum From : Ruth Haffly Date : Mon Jun 26 2023 19:49:09 Hi Dave, RH> F and S, M and N are common "mishearings"; we've had I don't know how RH> many times people have mixed up them up, especially the former. When DD> Those as well. I'd be rich if I had a nickel for each time I've heard it misprnounced or seen it missplelled. Steve would be even richer. (G) RH> Steve was in the Army and I'd have to make medical appointments on the RH> phone, it was so much easier to use the phonetic spelling of our last RH> name. At least I knew people on the other end would know it that way! RH> (G) Our girls fussed at me but I think they eventually saw the wisdom RH> of my doing so--and still do so from time to time. DD> spell things using my own "made up on the fly" phonetic alphabet. A DD> may be DD> "Adam", "Alpha", or "AutoZone" and so on. As long as DD> there is no doubt as to which letter I mean. It helps to prevent DD> misteaks. Bv)= RH> If you live near a military installation, probably a lot of people RH> would know the NATO alphabet. I didn't set out to intentionally learn RH> it; just sort of picked it up thru hearing it enough times. (G) RH> name. She went on to have a litter at the start of the Apollo RH> 11 moon shot so for RH> designators we used Neil, Buzz, Michael RH> and Diana (Roman goddess of the RH> moon). DD> Darwin was right, you know. RH> They were all good cats--hired for the mousekeeping. DD> So, three tom cats and a pussycat? IIRC, it was 2 of each but given the events of the week, that seemed to be an appropriate designator. My mom was in summer school and since that Monday was a national holiday, Dad decided we'd go out to see her, leaving mom cat & 3 kittens at the local vet's office. Came back home to 4 kittens. DD> When I was running the satellite shop we had a cat that one of the DD> techs brought from an installation. She was a very friendly kitten, DD> just old enough to be weaned. She'd catch a mouse and play with it DD> until itdied. Probably from sheer exhaustion. Mom cat was a barn DD> cat - but apparently had not had time to teach her daughter how to DD> hunt. So, in an effort to show Callie that mice were "food" I took DD> one of her victims and placed it on top of her bowl of kibble. She DD> batted the dead mouse out of the way and went to crunching her DD> Friskies. Bv)= RH> I don't know if Jenny-cat ever caught a mouse--she was abused as a RH> kitten and put into a shelter, then adopted out from there. I think her RH> abuser must have been a man because she was a lot more skittish around RH> them, than women, tho she was quite skittish around most of them also. RH> With me, she was a lap cat. DD> But she did keep the mouse population at a minimum. RH> Doing what she was paid to do. Maybe something about the taste RH> of dead mouse was a turn off. DD> I think she just didn't recognize it as food. Could be, if her mom cat hadn't taught her before they were separated. DD> gravy from DD> the spaghetti. She licked up all of the sauce and DD> left the meat. Pretty odd behaviour for a cat. RH> Quite so. We had a kitten and Sam who were both popcorn lovers. DD> Spot was the first (and only) cat I ever saw who would leave meat DD> in her bowl. RH> Jenny-cat left lamb and rice in her dish--she actually pushed the dish RH> away and refused to eat it. Vet had perscribed it as we were trying to RH> figure out some health issues so she said to put her back on what she RH> was used to eating. DD> Never try to out-stubborn a cat. RH> For sure! DD> I used to half-open the cans of packed in oil fish and let it drain DD> over the kitty kibble. The cats loved it. RH> Kibble disappeared rather fast when topped with fish oil. (G) DD> You betchum, Red Ryder (and if you remember that comix strip you're DD> older than I thought. RH> I've seen references to it but never saw the strip, itself. DD> Red Ryder ran in newspapers through 1965. And there were comix books DD> as well as the Red Ryder BB gun made by Daisy (I had one of those). We were never allowed comic books, RR wasn't in our newspapers either. Main reference I've had with him is from the movie "A Christmas Story" where the main character keeps wishing for the BB gun for Christmas & everybody keeps telling him "You'll shoot your eye out". (G) DD> I'm not sure that I'm on board with all the "politically correct" DD> renaming that has been going on. Especially the military bases. The DD> people for whom they were named were leaders who fought for the DD> principles in which they believed and were true to their cause .... DD> which even if it was wrong, or has fallen out of favour are still core DD> values that soldiers/sailors or wing wipers should practice. RH> I know, and I'm hoping that with some of the re-names, that someone in RH> the not too distant future will have the sense to change them back to RH> their original names. I know Fort Hood was another of the re-names but RH> it will always be Fort Hood to me. Had my first taste of real real (not RH> restaurant or Tex-Mex) Mexican food while we were stationed there--went RH> on a mission trip to Eagle Pass, TX, Piedras Negras, Mexico and the RH> ladies of the church down there cooked for us one day. Taco Bell has RH> never been the same since. (G) DD> Taco Bell has nover claimed to be "authentic". Bv)= No, but they're as close to Mexican as a lot of people have come in their lifetimes. DD> We have a mini-chain here called Taco Gringo which is *much* better DD> than Taco Bell. Del Taco is popular in the western states; we've been there a time or two. They offer fries with everything, somehow seems rather incongruous. Also been to Taco John's and other Tex-Mex type places in our travels. --- Catch you later, Ruth rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28 .... Are you sure you really want to know that? --- PPoint 3.01 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28) .