Sincerely, Mr. Haney

Back in the 1960s, there was a character on television comedy, “Green Acres” named Mr. Haney (actor Pat Buttram), who was always trying to sell some worthless contraption or cheap, tacky novelty to his neighbours. In selling his junk, he'd say something like, “it's genuine imitation wood” or “genuine plastic,” pronouncing genuine as “jen-you-whine”, and drawing out the whine. One day I happened to say the word that way, and was surprised by my mother's amused, mock-cringing expression.

“The word is pronounced, “jen-you-whin,” she informed me. “When you say, “jen-you-whine’,” she laughed, “You don't sound genuine!”

This bit of information confirmed again that even the slightest bits of knowledge could enhance my appreciation, in this case, of comedy. Now I could see the character more clearly as the hopeful but inept con artist, which was even funnier than I had imagined. Since then, I've been continually surprised at how many people say, “jen-you-whine”. I wonder if we all watched the same sitcom and passed the pronunciation on.

A Gen–u–whine Para-dime Shift

Usually a rarely used word becomes a frequently heard word because the time is right for its context. Most of us know, whether intuitively or logically, that a massive change in thinking is imminent for we cannot sustain the type of cultures we have inadvertently created. I don’t think any of us were surprised when we began to hear the pundits predicting a “paradigm*” shift in thinking.

In school, I had always heard the word pronounced, “pair-a-dim” and being use to this pronunciation, preferred it, (not that I had any reason to use this word in everyday conversation). Though either pronunciation is correct and though most people seem to be pronouncing it, “pair-a-dime,” it still amuses me to hear it said that way because Mr. Haney always springs to mind. I can imagine him saying, “Yessiree, there’s gonna be a gen-you-whine para-dime shift.” I can also picture folks like me, turning away, believing he’s selling another lot of snake oil.

[*Paradigm: an overall concept accepted by most people; a standard or model]