A doddering old fool turned to his more youthful but
sometimes just as forgetful bride and asked, “It’s Steve,
right?” “Who?” “Phil’s friend.” “Hmmm. Something
like that.” “Does he call him Steve or Stephen with
a ‘ph’ but pronounced as in an ‘f’ or Steven as in a ‘v’?”
“Got me there.” “I’m going to be embarrassed if it is Joe
or maybe Joseph as in a ‘ph’ but pronounced as if an ‘f’.”
“Well, don’t forget that it could be Josef with an ‘f’ but
pronounced as a ‘v.’” “I suppose we should just ask him.”
“Good idea there, you handsome man with a smaller than
elephant’s size memory. Or should I say, ‘You elephant-
sized man with a memory about as good as that of a dod-
dering old fool’?” So they asked their friend Phil and the
phone answer came back, “Ah…..your sixth sense is working
here: …the man was actually christened STEPHEN JOSEPH (!),
but answers simply to Steve. Another tidbit for the memory
bank.” And so they thought, we will write it down, because,
according to an old Chinese proverb, “The faintest ink is
better than the best memory.” “Now,” the doddering old fool
asked, “was that Josef with an ‘f’ but pronounced as a ‘v’
or Joseph with a ‘ph’ but pronounced as an ‘f’?” To which
his wife wearily responded, “Don’t worry about it, dear. Just
call him Darrell.” “How do you spell that — two r’s and
two l’s or one of each or one r and two l’s or two r’s and
one l? And now I can’t find a pen that works and I’m forget-
ting who we were talking about.” The next day, Phil called
to talk about his friend Daryl. “How do you spell that?” he
asked Phil. “Daryl.” The old codger called to his wife,
“Honey, how would you pronounce D-A-R-Y-L?” “Don’t
even go there.”