Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Silent "K"

When I arrived at work this morning there was a note on the door saying I had just missed a delivery from a courier company. I work all alone at a satellite building [no, we don't make things that go into outer space] but what I mean is, my warehouse is one of several in our company. So I called my supervisor at headquarters on the radio to advise him of the circumstances and he said he'd call to reschedule the delivery of the items. But he needed the reference number on the ticket. It was a long number and began with a few letters. I proceeded to rifle them off but he was like "Wait. Wait. Give me the letters slowly."
I figured I'd give him corresponding words to make sure we got it right over the radio, and was soon to find out how retarded I am when it comes to all that
Alpha-Bravo-Charlie stuff.
Because, the very first letter was an "N" and I said,
"N, as in…. knuckle!"
We both realized the state of my IQ at the same time and started laughing… I was so discombobulated that I could not do it for any of the other letters.
I just said them
v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.
Only now, as I sit here having coffee and doing some research do I find out that the official Phonetically-Approved representative word I should have used is, of course...
Knovember.
********

6 comments:

Isabella K said...

Coincidentally, my daughter and I learned all these words just yesterday, as for some reason they are featured on my bookmark and we spent the whole day in a waiting room.

Cipriano said...

Bravo, Isabella!
Did you do this In-di-a dentist's waiting room? Was the doctor in a uniform? Did you say the words and your daughter echo them back to you? At one point did anyone get an X-ray done? When's the next appointment, November? And this all took place in Quebec, am I right?

Alyce said...

Oh that is too funny! Thanks for the chuckle. :)

Merisi said...

*smile*

In these situations I am always a mess, never sure whether the word I am about to quote is from the Italian, English or German spelling (they are all different!). I almost never guess the right one.

My favorite is the word Domodossola, representing the letter D in the Italian phonetic alphabet.

Stefanie said...

Oh Cip, how this made me laugh! Thank you!

Cipriano said...

Alyce, Merisi, Stefanie:
Ahhh -- glad that I could bring a laugh into your day.