Congratulations and happy warshing. Nope...that just feels too weird. Guess I have no soul. Oh well.

ah, 'tis herself the salt of the airth who pronounces it "warshing."
a family i grew up with pronounced it "wurshing" and it was a bottomless, endless source of laughter when they ended up moving to wurshington state.

growing up in saint louis, we had a warsher.

we also had highways farty, and farty-far. and when they turned part of farty into an interstate, it became sixty-far.

don't get me started on qwater and carner.

Just don't call Interstate 5 "The Five." I Hate that.

i used to work in a geriatric cafeteria chain in which one old man always requested acorn squarsh.

it drove me nuts, until one day, i laughed until i blew snot from my nose into a pile of broccoli.

that didn't go over very well.

its like being at home again in indiana.

"lets go warsh our hair in the crick what runs behind the house."

the "what" in place of "that" is my personal favorite.

While in school I worked in a camera store. We'd get people bring "flim" (no typo) in to get it "warshed".

We'd ask if they wanted 2 sets of prints with their flim warshing.

You say tomato, I say keep it off my burger.

You say potato, I say goes great with everything but sex.

You say warsh, I say once a yaar wedder I needs it or naht.

Longtime listener, first time caller:

would like to {just quietly} add my enormous kudos to this gorg site. some of your mastheads are actually sex on toast, im sure.

Warsh your plate in the zink while we go have a sit in the davenport. Central Illinois, baybee.

Congratulations on the warsher, BlurboDooces. I think one of the happiest days of my life was moving into my house and finding the Kenmore Extra Heavy-Duty warsher and dryer combo quietly waiting for the first load.

I also think that "warsher" is a cross-country pronounciation; my gramma (Rochester, NY) and my neighbors (Baltimore, MD) all say it the same way.

"Aw fer cryin' out loud, der Dooce!" I'm from WI and we say a lot of dumb stuff, warsh isn’t one of them, thank goodness. I'm in Virginia now and thankfully it's not here either, though I do here a lot of deep southerners sliding it in and out of their drawl. (Deep geographically, not emotionally or philosophically.) Next: Cola vs. Pop, Bubbler vs. Fountain, "Roof" vs. "Ruff." Discuss.

My dad says warsh, and he says crick, as in a crick in the backyard, although he can also get a crick in his neck. The days of the week are also Sundee, Mondee, Tuesdee and so on. His mom is from West Virginia if anyone is trying to track it down.

cherie: the alternative to "warsh" is "wAHsh" (the correct pronunciation).

xioban: for this texan in colorado, it's Pop (although back home, everything's Coke), Fountain, Roof.

Huh. And they say us Alabama rednecks talk funny!

[I always thought that this was a Michigan thing when I lived in Ohio.]

the notwist! excellent choice in listening material.

Heather, I know how you miss the star sightings, that are part of everyday life here in Los Angeles. So, you'll appreciate the fact that I saw Josh Gracin from American Idol last night at the Chevron Station on Sunset and Laurel pumping his own gas. Brad wanted to talk to him, but I wouldn't let him! Granted not as good as the Kelly conversation I had last year, but still gratifying. Miss you three, and oh how I know about Chuck peeing on the neighbors!

holy crap, same here. New washer, dryer, fridge and cable modem... only we're in Kentucky and there are no extra r's here.

Is it "warshing" or "worshing"?

I live in western michigan..."youse better warsh your clothes in the zink, dummitall....and then, too yet, make sure youse do it in dezember. I'll give you a kwatter (not a dime) if youse do it".

My family originates from eastern Tennessee, and have said warsh for generations. I never imagined it could be a midwestern thing, or even reach as far as Utah! What about the word 'yonder'? As in "Your sister went down yonder holler."

Beerzie: who the heck calls it the five? And for that matter, who the heck calls it Interstate 5? I-5, baby, I-5.

And Pittsburgh is great for a lot of things, but definitely NOT pronunciation. (Sidebar: I had a post about that once. Haloscan lost it. Imagine that.)

Hey Dooce - I've been meaning to thank you for a year now for The Notwist. Neon Golden is now in my top 10 albums. They are excellent and I owe it all to you!

Everybody else - buy this! You won't regret it.

PS. I think that guy was from Oakley, UT.

I agree on "Nucular". But there is (as with most odd things) a dark, conspiratorial, mass-control oriented governmental reason for it. "Nuclear" is scary. "Nucular" is homely, hospitable, and oh, so very Southern.
Trust the Bush administration on making "Nucular" part of American govspeak (tip o' the hat to Mr. Orwell there).

As for Warshing, it could be worse.
Try "Woshing" in Britain....or "Weshing" in Australia....
WHY CAN'T EVERYONE JUST TALK THE SAME, DAMNIT!

Well, if you are from Texas, then everyone adds the "r". But there isn't a G on it either- it is just warshin' as in "I need to do some warshin" also we say, "Warsh the car" "Fixin" and "ya'll" we got soul.

Having spent time in Virginny, i learned they pronounced the surname "Lucado" as 'Luck-ee-doo'. Go figger.

"Ya know..uhhhurhm...I used to have me a warshing machine, but I never was no 'count at puttin' in no warshing soap.
Ev'ry time I put in that warshing soap, I done got suds up to my meat n' two potaters. Durn hard to mop it up." -- Karl, Sling Blade

Yes, I must agree that it's a Hoosier thing (I lived in Tennessee and 'warsh' isn't common). Not only do they mispronounce, but they make up words, too. My mom was raised on a farm in Indiana and she and her 4 sisters have their own vocabulary:
*warshrag
*yungins, youins and littel-ins
*over yonder (not invented by them...but who says that anymore?)
They also tend to use old phrases like 'mind your Ps and Qs'.

the canadian version of "yokel" talk would be waaaaaashin machine, don'tcha know.

My Grandmother, born and raised in Gaspe, Quebec, always pronounced sandwich *sangwich*. I always thought that was cute... Spookily enough, my fiance's mother, a true Italian from the province of Bari, says sangwich also. How can this be??? Can it be coast to coast?

but then again I pronouce it waassing machince.

You folks whining about the "nukular" pronunciation of nuclear...go look in a dictionary. It's considered an appropriate pronunciation now. Words change. Deal. Otherwise we'd all be speaking Middle English (and no one likes to read Chaucer, let alone listen to someone who speaks like him).

Just don't call milk "melk" because that automatically makes it sound all warm and curdled.

Here's a dialect survey for the curious. This is the results page (it's got maps and stuff): http://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/maps.php - but the adventurous can take the test too.

I'm sorry but the only reason the other pronunciation of nuclear has become accepted is because people are too damn lazy to say it right. I think there was one other prez besides W who said it wrong. It sounds stupid. I don't care what the dictionary says.

And since when is it uncool to say "the 5"? I have lived in SoCal my whole life and have heard lots and lots of "cool" people say it. But maybe it's an OC thing. LA people are just so much hipper than us.

I'm sorry...I'm just feeling so cranky today.

I have three problems w/ crude uses of language - 1) I'm hearing impaired, 2) I work with many middle-eastern folks, 3) I'm not from midwest (so. cal.) So not a day goes by where I don't develop a facial tic in response the constant butchery of simple pronunciations... worst offender here: for fark's sake, it's "cum-pyoo-ter" not "com-poo-ter." Lazy, moronic, or ignorant - take your pick.

Maybe I don't have soul, but I have grizammuh damn it!

Now hold on while I go warsh my motha fuckin mouth out with soap.

I thought that special extra "r" was peculiar to Eastern Canada. Maybe your Sears delivery guys are canucks.

Hrrm. Yes. Quite. A very cogent observation, no doubt.

Still waiting on that big review of _War and Peace_, though...

my boss says "cOWr" instead of "car". he's from detroit and chicago. where the hell is the "cOWr" pronunciation from?

I grew up in VA and I've never heard anyone say "bah-gle" as opposed to "bay-gle" - I suspect your friend is retarded (hehe) I will say "ya'll" every once in a blue moon. It makes me want to punch myself.

When I was little, we'd go visit my grandma in North Carolina several times a year. I must admit that I would tease her back then about the way she pronounced certain things: "waRsh" instead of "wash"; "piller" instead of "pillow"; "may-ter" instead of "tomato"; and phrases like "over yonder." My mom was born in NC but traveled around a lot with her family when she was growing up so thankfully she didn't pick up or pass on the southern accent to her kids.

Warshing with the warter off of farty-far in Missourah. There are quite a few mispronunciations that grate on my nerves, but I'm afraid none will ever compare to Oh-Free -- which is how my Grandma pronounces Oprah.

hmmm:
i agree!

i can't! it'll always be 'woshing' machine...but i do say maRstercard?

Someone mentioned "Missourah" and I developed my facial tic again. That's high on my list of "accent-peeves." I live in KC, famous for a bipolar mentality since it's the only city split b/t two states. My theory on the "Missourah" pronunciation is 'cuz "Missour-ee" is one mispronunciation from from "Misery."

on the contrary, mr. kaiser. "y'all" is plural. "all y'all" is simply MORE plural.

if i'm in a roomful of people, standing with my two best friends, and i say, "y'all ought to come back to my place for a beer," i'm inviting two people. if i say, "all y'all ought to come back to my place for a beer," i'm inviting everyone in the room.

y'all are makin' me miss virginia. (i'm stuck in pgh, where "yinz" is the second person plural of choice. blecchh.)

mu husband used to work at a place where they called it "the a, t and m" (atm). i loved, that one ;)

oh, and "illinoiz." best way to inspire my "oops i can't believe i just punched you in the teeth" tic.

Ugh, horrible memories... of living near Pittsburgh re-surfacing.. remember.. first time at laundry mat... trying to figure out what a wursher was... where did they keep the damned washers... why did they kept asking me if I wanted a Pop when all I wanted was a Diet Coke..

Heathens!

I'm drinking "soder." Like whoa.

Slackjaw, ssshhhh. You're gonna give us Portlanders a bad name.

Forgot to pipe in on the 2 formative high school years I was subjected to Salt Lake City. Is it still 7-11 still "the sev" and is Creek still "Crick". I never could bring myself to say I was "sloughing" when I chose not to attend classes at the fine high school known as Brighton.

I didn't actually realize there was another way of saying "sloughing" until I was 17 or so. You mean kids in other states "ditch" or something? Oh My Heck!!

Heh heh.

Evidently my 85 year old grandmother has no soul.
wonderful.

I think my ears might actually be bleeding.

I think the Pittsburgh area wins the award for stupidest accents/pronunciations. Not only do we say "warsh," we say "heel" instead of "hill," "dahntahn" and "ahrn" instead of "downtown" and "iron," and my all-time favorite, "yinz." Check out www.pittsburghese.com...it's scary.