What can I say?

At our graduation ceremonies, I had the job, among others, of pronouncing the students names. This is a daunting task, and when you have, as always, many complex ethnic names, you want to get them right. Parents, grandparents, spouses and children are in the audience and they want to hear you say the right name.

This has always been a pet peeve of mine so I practice by bringing together the graduating group for rehearsal and going over the names with their help.

I can mark their card with phonetic symbols so that at the time of graduation, I can read the name from the card handed to me, correctly.

In practice that year, I screwed up the simplest name, Linda Best, and made a Freudian slip, I guess. I turned red, the group laughed, and it was quickly forgotten by me.

Several months later, at a Board meeting, there was a presentation to me during New Business…..