Newsletter – January 10, 2025
Part 1 RECAP:
Infected teeth seem to have played a role in the speech impediment I’ve developed over the past several years. And because they refused to leave a bad taste in my mouth [rim shot] the infection was draining into my bloodstream. The teeth were extracted, I got some new choppers, and it’s time to retrain my brain.
Part 2 RETRAINING
I’ve never worked with a speech therapist but a few of my family members did.
When my wife was a little girl she had a lisp—that must’ve been adorable—and she was taught to say her S’s by hissing like an angry snake.
My dad was a twin and, together, the brothers had to learn how to say their R’s. It’s a myth that twins have their own language, they just share mispronunciations. Instead of choo-choo trains, they said choo-choo twains—again, adorable.
Dad would tell a story of he and his brother telling the speech therapist about their dog, Wags.
“Rags,” she corrected them. “Your dog’s name is Rrrags.”
“No, his name is Wags,” they corrected her. “Because he likes to wag his tail!”
So I’ve begun working on re-training myself. I have an MFA in Theatre and have taught enunciation as a Theatre Professor, so I decided to use my knowledge and apply it to a collection of poems by Robert Frost. The book was an opening night gift from a very special stage manager and it challenges me as I read the poetry aloud.
I sometimes read a stanza out loud five or six times to conquer the tripping points or the mushy places my mouth wants to go.
Try saying “more loitering” out loud. Go ahead. I’ll wait…
If you’re like me, you just said “more lortering.”
The “or” of the first word sits in the middle of your mouth with a cupped tongue, while the “oi” of the second word fits further back in your mouth with a flatter tongue and more open passage. Your tongue needs to do a bit of a dance to get from point OR to point OI. Subtle but significant dance steps.
You can find those particular words in the fourth stanza of Frost’s “The Trial By Existence.”
My goal is to tackle a poem or stanza every day and say it repeatedly until it flows easily—“trippingly on the tongue” as Hamlet put it—and not too emphatically.
My book sells for $13.99 and I don’t want to sound like I’m tearing off a chunk of raw meat while saying ninety nine. In fact, most of us tend to soften the T into a D and say nine-dee-nine.
A couple other phrases I’ve stumbled over lately include “toxic masculinity” and “I was being facetious.” I’ll let you try to work out the mechanics on your own.
You can also repeat “The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles” over and over again. Preferably in a bookstore. Just saying.
TTFN
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Eric Margerum 