Thanks for the letters

February 2, 2008 8:20 AM

Very very long overdue, but thank you so much for all the mail!

The video got me some attention, though most of the letters (which all came in within a month after that video went up) came from Mefites. I'm really sorry I never got round to replying to any of you. That particular month was full of personal crazy and I ended up spending the rest of of the year trying to work past the crazy.

I got quite a number of lovely letters, cards, and postcards - some of you wrote about your work, one person turned a map into a letter, and I got postcards from Canada to China. One particular Mefite sent me a tiny box with a toy elephant - my "lucky elephant"! That made my day soooo much.

I'm overseas at the moment so I'm nowhere near my mail, but I still have it all packed up somewhere. Thank you for brightening my day, especially during that really crazy month - it was a very trying time emotionally and the letters were one of the few things keeping me somewhat sane. (I'm better now, thankfully.)

posted by divabat to MetaFilter-Related at 8:20 AM (20 comments total)

We should all make videos! Except me, I'm camera-shy. It was so interesting to hear your accent. I didn't know I'd been mispronouncing "AskMeFi" all this time.
posted by desjardins at 1:45 PM on February 2, 2008

Drat, just found out about this now.

I almost never read MetaTalk, it usually stresses me out too much, can't handle it at all, am an on the blue person pretty much. Like desjardins I'd been mispronouncing AskMeFi too, as ask-meff-aye. And, for that matter MeFites too as meff-ites. How about memail? Is it meh-mail or mee-mail?

Love your video. You're one of my favorite MeFites, divabat. It's nice you did this video. So glad you received creative letters. YAY being loved and cared about. It's a good feeling.

Worried about what's been "personal crazy" and a "trying time emotionally". Sounds serious. Hope things are calming for you day by day.
posted by nickyskye at 3:09 PM on February 2, 2008

Like desjardins I'd been mispronouncing AskMeFi too, as ask-meff-aye

No no no, I thought it was "Ask-MEE-Fi," with "fi" as in "fine."
posted by desjardins at 3:56 PM on February 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Well that's just how I pronounce it - according to Jessamyn I'm likely wrong!

I'm all better now :)
posted by divabat at 4:25 PM on February 2, 2008

ask me (myself and I) ..f'eye

although I could imagine that the right pronounciation - given the contraction of me(tafilter) and fi(lter) should be "meh-fee"

hmmm.
posted by seawallrunner at 5:50 PM on February 2, 2008

You're welcome! Though mine, as I recall, was just a boring ol' postcard... Didn't know you were having a hard time, though. Glad to know you're feeling better now.

Ask-mee-fye, Mee-fight, Mee-mail.
posted by misozaki at 6:06 PM on February 2, 2008

Oh, I thought you said "ask meh-fee" - I will clean the wax out of my ears now.
posted by desjardins at 8:26 PM on February 2, 2008

I just call it the green to clear up any confusion.
posted by jmd82 at 9:26 PM on February 2, 2008

No, desjardins, you heard right - it's meh-fee. Like seawallrunner said, MEH-ta FILL-ter. meefye (fo fum) sounds ridiculous.
posted by divabat at 9:31 PM on February 2, 2008

Now we totally need a geographically based poll (to control for accents, native tongue and so forth).

Me: American English speaker (native), midwest USA, MEE-fye.
posted by desjardins at 9:47 PM on February 2, 2008

There's something catchy about Mee Fye though (always pronounced it that way, and am NOT going to change now, god dammit!).
Glad to hear about the warm hearted responses divabat, and that you are out of the woods as far as your troubles are concerned.
I usually like getting email (no, no--this doesn't mean you guys have to send me any), since it's much quicker and instantly gratifying.

I'll be sure to send you a letter though:)
posted by hadjiboy at 9:56 PM on February 2, 2008

may-fee : dutch pronunciation. Mefi would be a diminutive of meef. So a big grown-up metafilter is called meef (mayf). One syllable is much better for colloquial usage than two.
posted by jouke at 9:58 PM on February 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

I kind of like the fact that there's no single established pronunciation of the various Me's. I hope it stays that way, its one of those kind of ironically unique things about the site itself.
posted by allkindsoftime at 10:18 PM on February 2, 2008

allkindsoftime, I don't think it's a characteristic of the site. It's a result of english not having a unique correlation between spelling and pronunciation. So made up words like mefi cause confusion between English speakers.

In other languages with a direct correlation between spelling and pronunciation there is no debate on how to pronounce mefi.
That was the point I was making with the Dutch example. An oblique point, I agree.
posted by jouke at 10:23 PM on February 2, 2008

I'm with divabat: MEH-fee.
posted by languagehat at 6:36 AM on February 3, 2008

Yep, I've been calling it "mee fye" too.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:51 PM on February 3, 2008

How many times have we had this discussion? Not enough, by god!

I say mee-fye too. The crisp tang of the vowels, the martial disyllabic ring, it just feels right to me. Feel the muscles tense in your face as you say it; the cheeks draw back and the teeth emerge in a snarl or a grin. It's alive, it's engaged, it's bright-eyed and incisive. It would feel not only odd but embarrassing after all these years for me to dribble out a loose-lipped eeyore-mumbly meh-fee, slack and wobbly. Mee-fye's all about action items and naked dancing in the snow, meh-fee teeters one weak cup of tea this side of narcolepsy.

It's not wrong, because there is no wrong answer here -- but I just don't like it. No sir, I don't.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:16 PM on February 3, 2008

I've always pronounced it mee-fye; like, rhymes with: We Lie, He Dies, or Bee Pie.

mmm, bee pie...
posted by quin at 7:37 AM on February 4, 2008

Mee-fye for me too. It sounds futuristic and modern, like Hi-Fi.
posted by penguin pie at 7:40 AM on February 6, 2008

Yeah, Mee-fye for me too. Though I say Meh-tah-fil-tah, so not sure whether I'm the best to judge. Meh-fee just sounds like I'm really blase about something.
posted by indienial at 4:10 AM on February 12, 2008