Word Pronunciation

My husband and I went to out to dinner last Saturday night. Our server was new—we were her first customers. And she was quite enthusiastic—eager to please—very congenial. After fetching our drinks she reeled off the chef’s specials. And she was doing a diligent job—specifying the type: fish or pasta etc and how it was prepared.

One special caught my ear—not just because it was veal (one of my favorites) but because of her word choice: pan seared veal scappolini with…... But I was completely distracted by the word scappolini—I had never heard  that word before. I thought hmm maybe the “scap” part of the word referred to the scapula—the shoulder region of the veal. And maybe the “lini” part of the word meant little or tender. I guessed that veal scappolini was a tender cut of veal from the shoulder. It seemed plausible---my etymology seemed logical.

So I ordered the veal special—which prompted the waitress to say good choice—the scappolini is very good tonight.

But I still remained a bit skeptical about the whole scappolini business. Something did not seem right.

And when my entree was served the mystery was solved. The veal special was scallopine. The waitress had no idea how to pronounce the word correctly. She may have been sweet—but she was not too bright.

But the story isn’t over.

The next day when I took my tin of leftovers out of the brown bag I noticed that the waitress had written the name of the entrée on the paper lid—it said veal scapolini. So not only did she get the pronunciation wrong, but if scappolini was an actual word, it would have had   2 “p”s in it—she got the spelling of an incorrect word, incorrect also.

And I was reminded of a thank you note I once read—it was written by someone I did not know. The recipient had saved it for me to read—she was testing my deciphering ability. The note said (in reference to her and her then boyfriend) Use too are some of my favorite people.

I had no idea what the person was trying to say. And the recipient said listen to it phonetically with a heavy Bronx accent and you will understand.

I totally got it. You (plural with an “s” at the end) two are some of my favorite people.

Dina Cortese (from the Jersey shore) was quoted as saying Hestatic is when you're super happy and like really happy.

I think she meant ecstatic.

 Some people really are that dumb---and seemingly that happy—hestatically so.