While wasting another perfectly good hour recently, I was particularly amused during your segment on Bay area pronunciationisms. Having been raised in Upstate N.Y. (Rochester) where pies are baked with a-a-a-a-aples and cows give melk, I have little room to say anything. However... For a year and a half I attended North Adams State College (now Mass. College of Liberal Arts), where I--let's say--encountered many students from the eastern end of the Commonwealth. On one occasion I was engeged in an increasingly active discussion about the pronunciation of one word in particular, with one individual from Revere. "It's huss, not hoRse"' he said. "HoRse takes too long to say. Every cowboy rides his huss. That's it!" "OK", I said, "how do you spell the name of the aninal cowboys ride?" "H-o-r [or 'ah'] s-e. Huss. "Well", I asked, "if it takes too long to say "horse" why don't you just write it the same was you say it? H-u-s-s. Why waste all that time writing a little you don't have time to say anyway?" "Because" he said, " if I wrote it that was no one would understand waht I was trying to say!" And with that he left the room, closing the door behind him with a very heavy Boston accent. Barry Bradley San Antonio, TX P.S. I will admit the rest of the country could benefit from learning how to Bostonize the pronunciation of the wife of your uncle. Yes, it's 'aunt', not 'ant'.