Now I Know My A-B-Cs/Next Time Won't You Sing with Fred!

[gnomi]

[Poll #663732]

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Kneel before General Zed!

[lensman.livejournal.com]

Hmm I think that was "General Zod".... :-)

[ckd]

I use "Zee" informally, "Zed" when referring to specifically British items (like the "A to Z" brand of maps, which can be seen on the dashboard of Wallace & Gromit's Anti-Pesto van), and "Zulu" when spelling things out.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

I learned English from my parents, but while living in Europe. Interestingly, my mom learned English from her (British English) parents, in the US. My father (whose diction mine most resembles) learned English in the US.

Confused yet? Me too :-)

[angwantibo.livejournal.com]

I never learned English. I learned American.

Clue!

[(Anonymous)]

You have an icon with quotes from Clue!! No one knows Clue!! You rock!

marymary

[beckyfeld.livejournal.com]

Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Yow!) or emotion (Ouch!). (chorus 1)
Interjections (Well!) show excitement (Oh!) or emotion (Hey!). (chorus 2 & 3)
Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Hey!) or emotion (Hey!). (chorus 4)

I also find "Zed" useful both when talking to people for whom American was not their first language and when trying to distinguish between "Cee" and "Zee" on the phone. On the other hand, on several different instances I've asked a nurse who is trying to tell me a patient's name, "Is that 'C' as in 'cat' or 'Z' as in 'zebra'?" and gotten the WRONG answer (that is , they'll say "zebra" when the name actually starts with a "c" and vice versa), so I don't know if the Zee/Zed difference would have worked in those cases any better :-)

[madfilkentist]

Not only "Zort!" but "Narf!" (I think so, Brain, but how will we deliver the pizza over the fax line?)

[42itous.livejournal.com]

When I was studying in Oxford (I only took a summer course), my computer needed repairs. The only Mac repairman in town was retired but still working, a singer in a community operetta group by primary post-retirement occupation. When I called him, I slipped up and spelled my name with a "zee," thus totally confusing him because he'd never heard of the letter. Even after I explained what had happened, he still tried to pronounce my name "Plotsy."

[fizzixrat.livejournal.com]

I abstained from the interjection part of the poll, because you left off "Zoinks!" :)

Theodore Geisel, Please Call Your Office!

[(Anonymous)]

I am shocked--shocked, I tell you--that you would take part in this vast conspiracy propagating the erroneous notion that the alphabet ends with the letter that begins zebra, zigzag, and Zulu.

Those of us who read and mastered "On Beyond Zebra" as children know better.

STEVE O.