It used to make me giggle a bit, these British rockers singing with a forced blues-southern accent, mimicking their musical heroes. As if that's the way lyrics *must* be pronounced.

It always perks up my ears a bit when an actor pulls out a legitimate regional south accent rather than fake generic "southern." And though I have soft consonants and the occasional slurred vowel, I don't think I have as area-specific an accent as I grew up with. But my ears do snap to attention when I hear rural NC on my teevee. Such as Leon Rippy on Saving Grace. Or the occasional NC LEO interviewed on national news.

I pick up a hint of a Southern accent when talking to my dad's family or a couple of very country friends, and one time found myself adopting elements of a Boston accent when talking to a group of strangers from there at a tailgate party in North Carolina. But I seem to be immune to picking up Texas, West Coast, and Chicago accents as well as those from other countries.

When I was in middle school a friend who'd moved here from New York said I was the only person in our class he could understand at first—somehow I grew up speaking like a newscaster from the Midwest rather than either of my parents or pretty much anyone I was exposed to as a young child.

After years on the phones, I'm finally able to tell some of the Southern accents apart. I really love a true Georgian/South Carolina drawl. Texas just sounds harsh. I don't hear many Cajun, and Kentucky/Tennessee doesn't quite ping me. Maybe it's because of the Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia I grew up with.

I got a lot of "Are you English?" when I went to college, but I've lost a lot of it from 30 years in Utah. When I'm tired or in a really good mood, though, the old accent comes back.

This is me! And the same holds when speaking to my friends and relatives on the phone. If I am looking at them I can grasp what they are saying, but on the phone it is hopeless.

This is me too! I hate talking on the phone to anyone but people I know well. I can't parse half of what they're saying, especially if they have a strong accent. And of course the majority of my authors who want to call me instead of email have accents I can't penetrate. *sob* Why don't they just use email?

But my ears do snap to attention when I hear rural NC on my teevee.

It's soothing to my ears to hear a Tennessee accent.

I need to finish my self-eval today. shrift, you finished yours, right? I'll take that as inspiration.

I did. I probably could have made more of an effort, but I'm not going up for promotion, so I decided to conserve my energy. Congrats on finishing yours!

I was feeling better on Tuesday, that clearly was a 'one step forward, two steps back' situation. I was out sick yesterday and I'm working from home today.

You don't actually have pneumonia, right?

You don't actually have pneumonia, right?

I don't have the symptoms, mostly just exhausted/congested. I'll go to the doctor if I don't feel better this weekend.

I don't have the symptoms, mostly just exhausted/congested. I'll go to the doctor if I don't feel better this weekend.

Gah, it sounds like Matilda's walking pneumonia which went on for so many weeks this winter.

This is me too! I hate talking on the phone to anyone but people I know well. I can't parse half of what they're saying, especially if they have a strong accent. And of course the majority of my authors who want to call me instead of email have accents I can't penetrate. *sob* Why don't they just use email?

I've been known to spend way too much time tracking down a non-phone contact method on a support site to try to avoid having a phone conversation only to have a support person call me back instead of just responding to me via email. Grr, I intentionally went out of my way to avoid the telephone for a reason. I understand some people prefer the "personal touch" of a phone call, but I'm not one of those people.

Steph, I had ringworm in my teens. Got it from our cat ... you might want to check your own pets for patches of it. (And, yes, ringworm sounds a lot nastier than it is ... it's kind of like the circle of life for athlete's foot.)