Ken Brown[SMTP:k.brown@ccs.bbk.ac.uk] wrote:

When I worked in the Oil business some of my less sensitive English colleagues sometimes tried to parody Texan accents. They always got it very wrong - for example saying "Hooston" most Americans would instead of "Hyooston" as both we English and the Texans do (of course the name is originally Scottish (a place near Glasgow) and in it's homeland is "Hooston".)

And in the Big Apple we can tell out-of-towners in a New York second by asking them the name of the street at the southern base of the numbered grid system. It's Houston Street, and every citizen knows it's 'house-ton'. "It doesn't matter where you are; if it's not New York, you're Out Of Town." Peter Trei