My son wanted to tell me about a gag from an Animaniacs cartoon.
"And there was this poster on the wall, and he was pointing -- a poster of -- you know -- um -- you know Uncle Tom, mom?"
Me, nonplussed: "Uh -- like the book Uncle Tom's Cabin?"
"No, not a book -- you know -- the symbol of the United States? Of the Army and stuff?"
I stared a moment before it connected.
"That's Uncle Sam."
"Oh, yeah. Well, anyway, there was this poster on the wall --"
"U for Uncle. S for Sam."
"Oh yeah." Sheepishly. "I remember now."
"Please try not to forget it."
Wow, did Uncle Sam actually come from U.S. or was that your idea? I like it!
Posted by: Amy F | 27 March 2010 at 09:14 AM
You know, they're actually quite similar phonetically: they both start with a voiceless alveolar obstruent and their vowels are neighbors, acoustically speaking. :-)
Posted by: Jamie | 27 March 2010 at 09:35 AM