Fun Facts

The best thing about having a younger sister is the excuse it gives me to re-read all those children books I loved so much as a child. Upon re-reading Beverly Cleary’s “Ramona the Pest,” I was happily reminded of the mistake Ramona made while singing the American National Anthem on her first day of kindergarten. The 5-year-old Ramona mishears the line “dawns early light” as “dawnzer lee light.” I found this exponentially more humorous than my younger sister, who stared at me blankly as I laughed until I cried.  

To redeem myself, I mentioned the incident to a friend of mine, who reassured me that Ramona’s mistake was indeed a funny one. She also mentioned a couple of similar mistakes she made as a child. To her, “The Wizard of Oz” was the “Wizard a Foz,” and up until two years ago the commonly used phrase “play it by ear” was misheard as “play it by year.” Hearing this, I again burst into a bout of embarrassingly loud laughter, while my friend glared at me.  

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