Strategerist

In my continued effort to deprive myself of access to television while studying, I joined my friend at a local cafe (Cafe Milano, for those of you wondering where this blogger frequents). Towards the end of our stay, a female sitting next to us was talking to her friend. My interest immediately piqued when she began to criticize panelists she heard for saying, "Yeah we're doing good" (as in for the poor grammar). She then added, "I mean and these guys are political strategists?" (pronouncing it, "struh-teee-gist"). Naturally nothing gives me more pleasure than correcting a critic. So I chimed in, "At the risk of sounding like a jack ass, you said 'struh-tee-gist,' it's actually pronounced 'stra-tuh-gist'."

Annoying Friend: "It's not the only way of pronouncing it. I've heard it pronounced as..."
Me: "Well it's the most common way."

I ended the convo there, but I was also tempted to add that the use she was complaining about may not have been incorrected given the context of the talk, e.g. if they'd been talking about doing "good work." A word of advice to Cal undergrads and others out there, "A closed mouth gathers no foot." And I do get pleasure out of putting feet in mouths.