Hi, Mike!  Recently you wrote in a message to ARDITH HINTON:   
      
   AH>  Yes, awhile ago I mentioned a pun which I remembered   
   AH>  from a British magazine... khakis = car keys.  It works   
   AH>  in UK & ex-Brit Canadian English.  It doesn't work in   
   AH>  situations where "khaki" rhymes with "tacky", however   
   AH>  ....  :-)   
      
   MP>  Might work in Boston also.   
      
      
             Yes... and in various other places along the Atlantic seaboard, by my   
    reckoning.  While I've never been there myself Dallas spent some time in   
   Boston years ago & noticed the suppressed /r/.  The beauty of this pun IMHO is   
   that it seems to work regardless of who pronounces "khaki" as if it had an /r/   
   in it or who pronounces "car" as if it hadn't.  WRT New York State... see   
   below.   
      
             Another example which I find interesting, informative, and amusing is   
    one I ran across when our daughter chose to read James Fenimore Cooper's   
   series of novels about a character who is probably best known for his role in   
   THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS.  To make a long story short, if one persists in   
   reading all of these novels one may catch a glimpse of certain pre-Webster   
   American spellings. I noticed e.g. that the word "squaw" was spelled "squar" in   
    a particular volume   
   ... but not in more recent editions from different publishers.  When I saw this   
    I thought to myself "Oh, wow... he's using British phonics!"  To test my   
   theory I reported my observation to a friend who grew up east of London.  She   
   couldn't understand what I was so excited about because she'd spell it "squar"   
   too.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)