Some People Spell it 'mAUDLEYn'

And so it was just like my Mom said: Magdalene College in Cambridge, England, is pronounced "Maudlin." Take that, Thesaurus.

See, in the dictionary it says "maudlin, adj., self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental." And it adds that this comes from Mary Magdalen, who is often pictured weeping. Just think of it!! There I was in Da Vinci Code and didn't even know it!

Now then, what I did was appeal to my buddy over in London, Huw, to whom I posed the question: "How do you pronounce Magdalene, as in Magdalene College?" And he said it is indeed "Maudlin," perhaps because the founder of the college was a gent named Audley, whose name was writ thus by waggish scribes at his school: mAUDLEYn. Which obviously is pronounced Maudlin. And then Huw said the same is true of Magdelen College in Oxford ("What is good for Cambridge is good for Oxford," you see).

I learned this pronounciation from reading my Mom's research into the history of the Maudlin family, which was started in North Carolina by a man named Ezekiel. (You suppose this is the guy with the wheel? Nah...).

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Speaking of spelling, this is in my Sunday comics:

"I heard Swish mountain climbers Yoda atop the Alfs, climbed the Egyptian Pyrenees, and I walked along the Great Mall of China."

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If God had wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees. (No, I can't remember where I got this.)

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My favorite word today is window. N., I can see right through you. Def.: What men come back with when sent window shopping.