I was on my way to work today when the most horrific noise under the hood
sent me crawling to my local car repair shop. While I waited to find out what
happened to my Honda (apparently the heat shield became detached from the
catalytic converter) my attention was diverted to the television which was
tuned to Fox News. Our President announced that North Korea has launched
a NUKE-U-LER weapons program. Nuke-u-ler? For six years now I have been
waiting for someone on the President's staff, perhaps at a secret meeting,
morning debriefing, or a family get-together, to let the most powerful man in
the world know that it is pronounced 'new-clee-urr,' but it has yet to happen.
Or perhaps it has happened but he does not believe them. I remember being in
Mrs. Finkelstein's fourth grade class and her instructing us against the use of the
pronunciation "nuke-u-ler," saying it was incorrect. We had to practice saying
'new-clee-ur.' I never forgot that lesson. Apparently they don't teach that in the
fourth grade curriculum in Texas the way they do in New York. I remember being
an intern at Dateline, NBC, the summer before my senior year of college. One of
the producers, returned from maternity leave, whom I had just met, was very
nice to me, and ever morning, would pleasantly return my greeting of "How are
you?" with the phrase, "I'm well, thank you, how are you?" to which I would
respond, "I'm good, thanks." I steadfastly refused to say "well," even though I
knew it was correct, because I did not want her to think that she was better than
me, or that she had taught me something that I did not know. It was childish and
utterly senseless logic, and I cannot help but think that President Bush and I have
that in common, except for the fact that I learned from my mistake. I know know
the difference between 'well' and 'good' and use the words in their correct context.