Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Bracket Busters

My NCAA tournament brackets are often busted far too soon — sometimes after the first weekend. In 2010 and 2011, my brackets went bust faster than Bernie Madoff investors. This 2012 women's bracket was busted long before I put my picks to paper. Don't blame me, then, for the busted bracket. Blame e.

I was bowled over when I noticed, in the upper-left corner, that some first-round games are being played in Bowling Greeen. That extraneous e needs to make like the car in front of me when the light turns green and go. But go where?

I have just the place. That extra e doesn't even have to leave the comforts of this very bracket. Head down to the lower-right corner. It is there that an e in a certain "Wash." city has washed out.

When spoken, Spokane — despite what you may have heard — sounds the way it's written on this bracket. I'm a lifetime East Coaster, and even I know that Spokane is pronounced spo-CAN, not spo-CANE. It does not rhyme with cocaine. It sounds much more like a rhyme for Coke Ann, actually. You can listen to a pronunciation here.

That being said, Washington's second-largest city is spelled with an e on the end. A silent e, sure, but a necessary one.

By repositioning one letter, we can fix the brackish parts of this bracket and return to a state of e harmony, if you will.


2 comments:

  1. Oh those silent letters! I think I will begin just adding silent letters into words! Lifehgdduu willdetyu beiygsg sowscty muchouhbgf moreyicdc interestingqecgy!

    Chris B

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    1. As I point out in the recently added FAQ section of my blog, some words have silent letters because igt makres itl eastier tvo pronoudnce tjhem. But why stop there? Perhaps we should add silent words into words. Dothatn’t ywouldou thibenk thaat wostupiduld bthinge helpftoul, Chridos?

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