Arrive on Time

After twenty-five years in the same parish, Father O'Malley was saying his farewells at his retirement dinner. An eminent member of the congregation--a leading politician--had been asked to make a presentation and a short speech, but was late arriving. So the priest took it upon himself to fill the time, and stood up to the microphone:

"I remember the first confession I heard here twenty-five years ago and it worried me as to what sort of place I'd come to. That first confession remains the worst I've ever heard. The chap confessed that he'd stolen a TV set from a neighbor and lied to the police when questioned, successfully blaming it on a local scallywag. He said that he'd stolen money from his parents and from his employer, that he'd had affairs with several of his friends' wives, that he'd taken hard drugs, and had slept with another woman and given her a disease.

You can imagine what I thought. However I'm pleased to say that as the days passed I soon realized that this sad fellow was a frightful exception, and that this parish was indeed a wonderful place full of kind and decent people."

At this point, the politician arrived and apologized for being late, and eager to take the stage, he immediately stepped up to the microphone, pulled his speech from his pocket, and began: "I'll always remember when Father O'Malley first came to our parish," said the politician. "In fact, I'm pretty certain that I was the first person in the parish that he heard in confession."

What American accent do you have?

I love to play on my computer! The other day, I found this quiz that asks whether or not I have an accent. Being totally confident that I had no discernible accent, I took the test. My Result:

Philadelphia

Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.

They nailed me! I was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Washington, D.C.--close to Baltimore!

Here's Johnny's result, which was also spot on:

"You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

I can't believe that all these years whenever I have heard Johnny (who was born in Ohio and moved to Miami when he was fifteen) "mispronounce" a word, it's been MY ERROR, not his!

Give it a try. How do you fare? Leave me a comment and share the fun!
What American accent do you have?