(urth) Wolfe's brilliance or my denseness?

[António Pedro Marques]

Jerry Friedman wrote:
> All I really wanted was to suggest that people not use "megatherians" to
> mean the alien monsters as if there were a consensus on the subject, and
> to point out a different speculation for those who were interested.  It's
> clear there isn't.

Yeah, the mentioning of fringe, not consensual or even just not enoughly
discussed ideas as if they were canon annoys me to no end. Here as anywhere
else.

> By the way, "for the record" I had no idea the old man's "Cas" was
> Dorcas.  I probably realized that on some reread.  It's even possible
> that I needed it pointed out (maybe here).  Lee Berman's point about the
> pronunciation was part of it.

I should point out that my instictive reading of Dorcas was DAWRK-us (gave 
up on IPA), possibly not that far from the AmE pronunciation, but not being 
acquainted with the name I switfly considered door-KAZZ, seeing as there was 
a guy nearby looking for a KAZZ. My language's orthography is more 
(morpho)phonemic than phonetic, but unstressed sounds, although reduced, 
aren't neutralised as in english (so unstressed e/i may merge, as may o/u, 
but a doesn't merge with anything), so we do pay attention to the graphic 
part of it because it does line up with the pronunciation, even if the rules 
are complex (they're part of the language, anyway).