Hyperbole, re: Did you ever feel stupid? (and gentle corrections)

[Sam Brown]

Jennifer, not Jenifer wrote:
> Here's an unrelated (to the original topic, anyway) question: has 
there ever been a situation where you've had to "correct" (for lack  
of a better word) your SO (significant other) that caused you quite a 
bit of internal turmoil?

This post is unrelated to your question, Jeniffer (<g>), but it 
reminded me of something which happened once on an Australian TV 
programme called 'The Panel', which is basically a discussion show 
where the five panelists, usually comedians, sit around and discuss 
the week's current affairs.

Anyway, two of the regular panelists are fairly well known Australian 
personalities called Rob Sitch and Kate Langbroek (sp?). Rob is 
usually a bit arrogant and Kate is usually a bit ditsy, and Rob is 
constantly making a mockery of Kate, which is usually pretty funny, 
as Kate has a good sense of humour about it all. ANYWAY, one happy 
day Kate managed to get her own back when Rob, an intelligent man who 
is always implying he is smarter than Kate, pronounced the 
word 'hyperbole' as rhyming with 'hyper-pole'. Kate was quick to 
correct his pronunciation, and she made sure to mirror Rob's usual 
arrogant smirk perfectly. It was hilarious!

But yes, words can be quite tricky, and it's always funny when people 
mispronounce them (unless it's you yourself doing the mispronouncing, 
of course). I've had friends pronounce 'paradigm' as 'para-dig-em' 
and 'paragon' as rhyming with 'diagon' (as in Diagon Alley). Until I 
was about twelve, 'fatigue' was pronounced as 'fat-ee-gew'. 

Sam