2422 Cheech Filet

It's hard to explain how words trip me up  sometimes.  Like I'm expecting certain things in certain contexts and then get turned around by my own prejudices.

Take this headline I read from Fox News: "DC Legalizes Pot. Last minute push by GOP to blunt legislation goes up in smoke."

Wow. Surprisingly weed savvy for the presumably non-tokin' conservative Fox News.  They knew two expressions in canna-terminology.  "Blunt" and "Up In Smoke."  One referring to an actual reefer, the other to the iconic Cheech and Chong movie. 

For a news source that pilloried the husband of Hillary for his "did not inhale" mea non-culpa, that's a great lurch forward. 

Another word, actually a brand name, I have problems with: Chick-fil-A.  I always pronounce it to sound more like "chick filler."  Because the way they spell the name throws me off.  Maybe I'm just not used to seeing so many hyphens in brand names. 

Part of the problem is my brain is already trying to adjust to the f-i-l being pronounced like the name Phil, or the process fill, as when you fill a hole.  Because f-i-l- trips a French synapse in my brain.  So I want to say something more like feel.  That means I'm already reeling from chick feeling by the time I get to the A on the end.

Result?  I can't make that A a long A.  If they wanted to say filet (again spelled with a f-i-l- but also with the French e-t-) why didn't they use A-Y-? 

So the whole thing translates to "chick filler" in my mind.  Which makes me think they're not using actual chicken at all.  Or more chicken sphincters in their nuggets than one would expect.  Chicken filler just doesn't sound appetizing.

Not even in a pot pie.

America, ya gotta love it.