Praise from Caesar

Here's an e-mail I just got from a fairly well-known local viewer:

Hafa Jason:

You are one of the few Chamorros who pronounce the road in Dededo, "Ysengsong", correctly.

Congratulations.

Thanks! What's funny is that I've gained as much street cred as I have grief over certain words I use, and the manner with which I deliver them. Many people note how I sometimes say "on holiday" when describing someone's vacation, and I've even thrown our audience the occasional curveball by saying "on our shh-edule tonight" as would the BBC lads from across the pond. Other examples I do quite often:

• "DeTAILS are sketchy"...and..."the prisoner was "DEtailed"
• "The House REsources Committee" and "ReSOURCEs are limited for the recovery effort"
  
• "The public assistance PROgram"and "writing a computer proGRAM"
• "The deal was fi-NANCED" and "The FI-nance committee"
  

I chalk it up to the fact that the blood that courses through my veins is at some point British, and that Mom, an English literature teacher her entire life, stressed the proper use of linguistics. I'm genuinely flattered when people take note.

Use our closed captioning the next time you watch the news on TV and have a laugh at how off-script I go.