"The Noughties"?

[Carol]

> Geoff:
><snip>
> Returning to Harry/Hairy, a British person would normally go for the 
> 'Harry' version, The standard pronunciation in UK English is that a 
> doubled consonant is preceded by a short vowel.

Carol:
Interesting! That rule applies generally in American English, too,
except that (in my dialect, at least), it doesn't apply to "r," which
alters the sound if the vowel (which brings us back to Sirius/serious,
sshich doesn't quite fit your rule if the in "Sirius" "i" is short).
At any rate, the "a" in "rabbit" is short (followed by a double
consonang) and the "a" in "rabies" is long, followed by a single
consonant, so, yes, the rule generally applies. I'm sure we can think
of many other examples, but they don't necessarily apply to the letter.  

Geoff: 
> This is why, for example, the past tense of "travel" is "travelled",
otherwise it would be pronounced 'tray-veld" or something akin to 
that. Sssh - don't tell our American friends, they've been spelling it
the wrong way for years.

Carol:
Well, no. The "e" in "travel" isn't short. It's an unaccented vowel (a
schwa), which isn't affected by consonant doubling. The short vowel is
the "a," which, according to our rule, ought to be
doubled--"travvel"--to indicate that it's short, or the word should be
pronounced "trayvel." The double "l" in "travelling" doesn't follow
any rule that I'm aware of. (We drop a silent "e" before adding a
suffix, such as -"ing" or "-ed," but I don't recall a "double the
final consonant" rule before adding those suffixes except in
one-syllable words such as "run," in which the "short vowel before a
double consonant rule" would apply. (It doesn't apply to one-syllable
verbs or we'd have "runn" and "jogg" and "digg." It doesn't seem to
apply to "x," either, or we'd have "hexxed" and "hexxing.")

Geoff: 
> If I don't reply to this thread again today, have a good Leap Year
Day and, guys, if you're not hooked already, watch out for low-flying
maidens of the non-cricket variety.

Carol:
"Low-flying maidens"?

Carol, picturing thirteen-year-old witches on broomsticks (which
ought, actually, to be brooms, the broomstick being just the handle
without the bristles or twigs)