Napples and Noranges

I was telling my family about the APS post concerning a/an and the variations that have resulted from misuse of them. My mother was adamant that there was never a norange or a napron; my dad just was curious to know what else could have changed if it were all true. We did look them up on the OED, but 'norange' seems to have been French, so my mom's still not convinced.

My dad is quite the comedian -- he loves to twist your logic against you. My mom has bee sick these last few days and lost her voice, so she's rather helpless against him (not that she can do much in the normal run of events!). He's been in fine form today, and we came up with a few other variations.

napricot: it will put you to sleep.
nbanana: found in Namibia, and liked by those African tribes whose names we can never pronounce.
napples: What a certain city in Italy is named for.

My parents were in the living room while my sister and I were in the kitchen. My dad said something, but I couldn't hear, so I went into the living room to ask him what he said. "Did you say something?"
"Yes!" my mother triumphantly whispered. "Can someone get me a cookie?"

I wish I could better illustrate the way we interact. We have had so much fun deliberately misunderstanding each other today, we had tears in our eyes from laughing!


I spent about 5 hours of Saturday evening watching three children and a 5-week-old purebred (expensive!) Golden Labrador at a black-tie dinner and auction. The dog had to go to the bathroom and the kids were bored, hungry, and filled with the wanderlust. Fun fun fun!