nucular: it's just wrong

i may be a snob, but there are some things that i've always thought are simply wrong, at least as far as pronunciation goes. some examples include poinsettia as "poinseta," crayon as "cran," and nuclear as "nucular."

i must admit that merriam webster, that bellwether for language trends, has proven me wrong on all counts. poinsettia can also be pronounced "poinseta." although crayon's deviant doesn't merit a wav file, there it is: "'kran." and yes, one of nuclear's three pronunciations is "nucular." go figure.

for those of you who now feel justified in your mispronunciations, i would like to note that the division symbol next to the phonetic spelling of "poinseta" and "nucular" indicates that some snobs like me feel the pronunciation is incorrect. (i discovered this over at andrew moroz's blog.) to my great distress the symbol does not appear beside "kran." if anyone wants to sign the petition to add it, just let me know.