So the female student just in front of me was called on to recite the facts for a case. The story involved some youths, so she stuck to the script and called them “youths” while briefing the case. But when she pronounced it out loud “youths” sounded more like “utes”. And being I am of a certain age and seeing as how we were studying law, I was immediately reminded of My Cousin Vinny where Joe Pesci repeatedly refers to the “youths” as “utes” and a whole scene with the guy who played Hermann Munster plays out. I obviously found it somewhat humorous because I saw the movie once, many years ago, and can only recall this scene. I found it ironic that here we were studying law in a non-Ivy League institution and the movie’s protagonist was a non-Ivy League educated lawyer. But even though I was amused, I smiled only on the inside as the key in class is to not draw attention to myself so as to prevent the dreaded sound of “Ms. Franch, what do you think?” I figured a smirk after she told us all about the shenanigans of the “utes” would elicit a “Ms. Franch” from the professor who a) would think I was either mocking her or b)think I was daydreaming or reading email so call on me to “get me good”.

Later, on the way home, I felt bad for smiling at the pronunciation. I mean, who am I to find humor in another’s speech pattern? So, alone in my car, I tried it myself. “Youths.” “The youths played baseball.” And what I heard myself say was “Utes.” “The utes played baseball.” Darn that really is a difficult word to pronounce. The sound of u added to th is a b added to an itch to sound out properly.