Goin' Nuculur

One of the things I pride myself on is being pretty good with words. I like to use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation. I like to pronounce foreign words with the correct accents, whenever possible, though this makes me look like a smartie-pants-know-it-all sometimes (croissant, anyone?) and my husband teases me about it. I am also quite precise about word pronunciation, I hold myself to a pretty high standard and when I realize I've been saying a word wrong (for example, I kept pronouncing "endoscopy" as end-o-scopey, and learned yesterday that it is, in fact, end-AH-scopy, with the accent on the middle syllable. So... where was I? oh yeah) I will immediately correct it, even rehearsing it in my mind our aloud for a while to make sure I know how to say it correctly.

I don't hold the general public to the same standard, of course. I mean, how could I? I would have no friends or even acquaintances if I was constantly correcting people. But I do expect that people who are in broadcasting, on the radio, where the medium is language, to know how to pronounce every word they use accurately!

Today on the way home from work, I heard a reporter on the radio pronounce that infamous word "nuclear" as "nuculer". I know, this is a common mispronunciation and that I should just get over it, but this one is the proverbial nails-on-the-blackboard for me. So please, spread the word. The word is "NU-CLEEE-UR". No exceptions. If I hear it mispronounced on the radio again, I might just GO nuclear on them... well... I'll problee just go back to the libary and cry a little.