This past week I attended an annual dinner and live auction sponsored by the Pryor Area Chamber of Commerce.
The featured speaker was Channel 8 Sports Director Chris Lincoln.
After Mr.
Lincoln was introduced and came on stage he thanked those who invited him to come, one in particular, the Director of the Pryor Area Chamber of Commerce, Barbara Hawkins.
Mr.
Lincoln addressed her as Barbara Turner.
Chris Lincoln is an accomplished and world-wide speaker.
It was a shame to have him begin what turned out to be a very good speech by misnaming the Director.
Yes, it is true, standing behind a lectern or on a stage before a group of people carries with it a certain degree of risk.
But you don't have to mispronounce a person's name to make a mistake.
There are many ways; and it can be much worse! The English Language itself might be the culprit.
The reason being is that there are so many of its words that are spelled the same or sound the same but have a far different meaning! They are called homonyms.
My speech this evening will be comprised of three parts.
First I want to examine the word Flush f-l-u-s-h then open the floor for some comments or questions then finally sum up my presentation with a personal experience.
Example number one: A few months ago former Vice President Dick Chaney and some of lawyer friends went quail hunting in Texas.
I suppose they had a dog along: first to point to the quail and second to f-l-u-s-h flush the quail from their hiding place.
Well, you know the rest of the story.
Dick Chaney whirled around and accidentally shot one his friends and could have killed him.
Example two: You and your spouse go to a nice restaurant and eat your fill.
Later you take in a movie and share a large tub of popcorn, a large Coke then drive home.
Just about the time the car enters the garage you feel a pain and gurgle in your gut and you immediately rush into the house to the bathroom.
Afterward you turn around and flip the lever on the tank behind you and f-l-u-s-h flush the commode.
Example number tree: Let's assume a young man about twenty walks through that door, a visitor or a new member of our club.
He is a very nice looking man and single.
He walks in and notices Kay-Lynne sitting there.
We know that Kay-Lynne was a beauty queen and a playboy bunny.
She remains a beautiful woman.
That young man turns to her and says, "Boy, you sure look good for an older person!" My wife had that happen to her on our trip to Florida, and she took that person's comment to be a compliment.
I suspect Kay-Lynne would take that young man's words as a compliment as well.
If so her face would immediately bloom into a wide grin and start to take on a pinkish cast.
Her face would f-l-u-s-h flush.
Here is my question.
Why would anyone design a word to describe scaring birds into the air and emptying out your commode then use the same word to describe the look on a beautiful woman's face when she has received a compliment? Finally, let me sum up my presentation with a personal experience.
I was teaching night classes at Tulsa Junior College in the middle 1980's.
The man that hired me told me up front.
He said, "You will be teaching technical courses and in each classroom is a laboratory.
I can assure you that there are plenty of parts, tools and test equipment on the shelves and in the drawers to do each and every experiment.
But I must warn you.
They might not be where you expect them to be.
You have to tell your students that.
Two weeks later we had our first lab experiment and I told the students, both men and women, "Okay, it's time to do our first experiment.
There are a sufficient quantity of parts, test equipment and tools to go around.
But I must warn you.
They may not be where you expect them to be.
Therefore, go back there and get into each other's drawers and take out whatever you need! Homonyms: words that can get you into a lot trouble!