Not in Kansas any more

Helped my daughter with her list of spelling words, for this Friday. Read her words from the list, and she spelled them, verbally.

The theme was "words with an 'ar' sound".

Some of the words were:

• are
• far
• part
• park
• dart

O.k., fair enough. But they also included as having "ar" sounds:

• fast
• after
• ask
• last

So apparently, Aussies completely accept "ask" being pronounced "arsk", and "after" as "arfter". Or in other words, they talk like Popeye.

Similarly, when I read "last" off the list, my daughter didn't know what word that was. I explained it was the opposite of being first. She wanted me to pronounce it "lost". I countered that "lost" is when you don't know where you are -- like being lost in the woods.


It's like that Bible verse says: the first shall be lost, and the lost shall be first.


--GG