Oh, I think I asked for it! The pitfalls of unthought out mails when the supposed mind is elsewhere.. > The way I hear it, "pot" and "put" aren't even part of the > discussion: it's about the difference between "toe" and "too." > But I'm a Californian. > > Sonny--do you pronounce "Zooey" and "Joey" more like "pot" > or "put"? Yeah, okay, so let's take "toe" and "too" ( I mentioned "pot" and "put" in a monumentally stupid effort to get the difference between "o" and "oo" across, not that it was needed -- as if folks didn't know! But i digress) My Zoo-ey has the "too" sound and not the "toe" sound. But then that's what the whole debate, I realise (after opening the dreaded by Mark can), was all about. Oh my very subtle attempts to be very unambiguously clear. Chanting yes, ofcourse Zoo is like"too" and Jo perhaps like "toe" so Zooey is, well Zooey, and not just mixing up the vowels, and planning to sleep it over now that it's about dawn, Sonny