Small pleasures

We were making our way through the empty TV hour that precedes two late-night episodes of Murphy Brown. We had Antiques Roadshow on for lack of anything better. I flipped to see the descriptions of the upcoming Murphy Brown episodes and read aloud: “/ˈkā-mē-ˌō/ appearances by,” &c. I always say /ˈkā-mē-ˌō/. I always have it wrong. Elaine always points out that it’s pronounced /ˈka-mē-ˌō/. And I continue to get it wrong.

Back at the Roadshow, someone soon said /ˈka-mē-ˌō/. And on the first of the night’s Murphy Brown episodes, someone said /ˈka-mē-ˌō/. The second episode had the cameos, by Ed Bradley, Bob Dole, Linda Ellerbee, and many others.

The Antiques Roadshow episode was from /spō-ˈkan/, Washington, not /spō-ˈkān/. That’s how it goes in the spoken language.

The small pleasures here are two: 1. hearing cameo pronounced correctly, once in our living room, twice on on TV, and 2. getting a lesson in pronunciation that will stick.

[Nos. 6 and 7 in a series.]