A Snippet - A Rant - Words Matter

Talk of the Nation left and Here and Now replaced it.  My public radio station hasn't been the same since.

Mike Pesca, sports analyst on all sorts of media platforms, gets paid to speak for a living.  There is no excuse for him to be stupid, and then laugh at himself.... at least that was what I was screaming at my radio this morning.

He was talking about the upcoming Mayweather/Pacquiao welterweight championship bout.  He was making a good point - that this will likely be the last big fight, since boxing is no longer the socially acceptable form of amusement of days gone by.

In fact, he said, it is a fin de siecle moment.

At least, that's what he wanted to say.  What he said was fin (as what's on a fish) d'see-klay.

 He laughed, again, and wondered if he'd pronounced it correctly.

NO!! I screeched.  YOU GET PAID TO TALK!! DO IT WELL!

Robin Young, the host, exacerbated the situation by laughing along.... without correcting him. Instead, "Close enough, Mike, close enough!" was her reply.

Doesn't that imply that she knows the correct pronunciation?  Can't I infer that she could as easily have said "Fan d'see-ek-leh, Mike"? 

That would have taken far fewer syllables than her actual response, would have educated a colleague, and would have prevented an unsuspecting listener to assume that Mike Pesca knew what he was talking about.

Well, maybe he did know what he was talking about.... he just couldn't talk about it very well.

GRRRRRRRR........

Thanks for listening.