I kind of like these:

That is the milliner, BTW. So she did it to herself.

Deeply though I disapprove of the Daily Mail, they've got some terrific photos up, for those who want MORE.

He ALWAYS looks like that.

BTW I am not 100% sure about the Marie Antoinette blushing thing. She wore hats like whoa. Here she is accessorizing her headgear with what would later become the Hope Diamond:

This hat makes me entirely happy, and I want it please.

Am in complete agreement. This is IT. I like Pomplamoosse a lot, but no.

Also there's Ewan McGregor and his cat ...

This World War I song is where I first heard it (heaven knows where, maybe on one of the many odd records that seemed to breed in my parents' house).

BEmused. I meant what I typed.

Nope, Sam Houston is one of the Texas founding fathers - kind of the main one - whereas New York's Houston Street is named for a guy from Georgia, William Houstoun, who was in the Continental Congress and married a Bayard from NYC. The street was on her father's property, I think. No idea how it got misspelled.

Considers fetching the Heaney translation of Beowulf with the Old English on the facing page, considers the hour, decides no. IIRC it's surprisingly decipherable if you've got the modern English to check against it.

Interestingly, "Cholmondeley" is not Gaelic, it's Old English, according to Wiktionary: "From Old English Cēolmund, a given name + lēah ("wood, clearing")."

Where is the Southerner who's going to say "Coke"? (Or am I just not seeing her/him because Kinja?)

True. Also true (and totally unrelated to pronunciation) - General William J. Worth, for whom Fort Worth was named, is buried at the north end of Madison Square, under that obelisk at 25th Street. I find this strange.

I think in cases like this we ("we" meaning the locals, wherever) have shifted the pronunciation while retaining the old spelling. Hence we have not only "Leicester" but "Cholmondeley" and "night." In other cases the spelling has kept up - so "April" not "Aprille" which had 3 syllables.

Actually, you wouldn't - that's the trick easy one: "Meh-gargle." As in any state/ country / whatever, some of the Texas place names are only for the super advanced class. Check out "Pedernales": http://www.texastripper.com/pronounce/loca…

WHAT a great site! And so much I'd fogotten - Manchaca, Anahuac, Zabcikville, Nacogdoches, Quitaque ...

No. Soft drink.

I know! Knight = Kuh-neek-uh-tuh for them. I think. It's been a while since my Chaucer seminar.