There is some kind of freaky weather going on here because yesterday the HIGH here was 83. That's typically our September weather, late in the month, or maybe March. It was so nice I spent a lot of time outside, watering and puttering around in my gardens.
Michael and his friend Michael made a fire in our firepit last night, it was so chilly.
[above, a photo made earlier in the day right before they took Lola to walk.]
I have a bone to pick with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They recently canceled a class to reduce southern accents. Why on earth would they offer such a class?
"The course had been advertised as a way to "feel confident in a meeting when you need to speak with a more neutral American accent, and be remembered for what you say and not how you say it."
Really? Now the national news folks have picked it up and are reporting on it, like this NBC News story, Tennessee Nuclear Lab Cancels 'Lose Your Southern Accent' Class.
"Lisa Scott, a speech pathologist in Knoxville, Tennessee, told NBC News that Oak Ridge National Laboratory — the U.S. Energy Department's largest science and energy research facility — hired her to help staff members neutralize their Southern accents.
Many businesses offer "accent neutralization" services for employees hired from foreign countries, and some do for native American English speakers with strong regional accents, especially in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, Scott said. Oak Ridge's course was the first she'd heard of by a government agency."
Yes, the government thinks my accent is a problem. Wow. They have no problem with printing government forms in Spanish for folks who live here but won't speak English. Why doesn't the government help them with their accents?! I was in a store recently and the Hispanic salesman had an accent so thick I had to ask him to repeat everything 2-3 times.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is in the heart of East Tennessee. I lived there for 20 years. I still say "laht" and "fahve" [light and five] and "share" for shower. So be it. I've never had anyone say they couldn't understand me.
ORNL needs to stop wasting money on hiring people like Lisa Scott, and spend money on making the place more secure! They have nuclear reactors there for heaven's sake!
The story of Oak Ridge is fascinating. It is a valley enclosed entirely by the Blue Ridge Mountains. They evicted the farmers and built the entire city in the 1930's in order to build the nuclear bombs that ended WWII. It was the "secret city" for years. There's a terrific new book out The Girls of Atomic City that I read part of recently. The young women who went there to work were given amazing opportunities for that time, and they also had to endure some real hardships.
But back to the accent reduction thing that has me so ticked off. I am PROUD to have an accent. When I am at a family reunion it gets thicker. When I am in a long conversation with a non-southerner it is less. My musical ear adapts to what I hear around me, is my point. Most of us in the south adjust our accents to fit the situation, if need be. But to offer a class, like it's a speech impediment? HELL to the no.
