A brief incident at the barbeque between EWU's undergraduate and graduate commencement ceremonies yesterday further confirmed our previous post about people's surprising inability to grasp Maeve's name, despite its evident simplicity. (After all, it's just one syllable, with only five letters and only three distinct phonetic sounds.)
Just as Brian approached the barbeque area with Maeve in her stroller, he glanced up to see two colleagues approaching—RG and JD, who is retiring this year—along with JD's wife.
JD's wife looked at Maeve and said something complimentary about how cute she is. Maeve happened to have out on her lap one of the burp cloths given to her by her aunt Sarah, which has her name embroidered on it. Brian figured he was home free this time, since there could be no confusion about a name spelled out plain as day right in front of someone's eyes. He was wrong. Here's how it went:
JD's wife, seeing the burp cloth: "Oh, look at that: Maeve Catherine. How beautiful. [One-second pause] Is it Maeve or mauve?"
RG and Brian together, quietly: "It's Maeve."
Fortunately, Brian was free to leave at that point to go catch up with Tracey, and he did.
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Why intelligent people cannot read is a mystery to me.
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