Re: West, midwest, and east

Hi John,

I'm not exactly sure you Californians know how to pronounce your Spanish names either... I've heard "Val-eh-ho" (or even worse "Valley-joe") for "Va-yah-ho" and then up your way I've been corrected when I referred to San Rafael as "San Ra-fay-el" (which is correct) instead of "San-Ra-fell".

But then we have no monopoly on proper Spanish usage down here either... we have "Table Mesa Road" and a tony neighborhood up in the northwest part of town is called "Casas Adobes" (I like to translate that as "mud huts"...)

But you're right... those nice people from back east often seem to be clueless when it comes to Spanish pronunciation (we get our share of mispronunciations every winter, during snowbird season...)

Bill Daniels
Santa Rosa, California