otoh

For months I have had a post rattling around in my head. Apparently, it is not yet ready to be posted because it remains half-formed, un-typed, not yet transferred from cerebral-space to cyber-space. But I know what I plan to use for the title if when I finally write it:

The Morning Sun, When it’s In Your Face.

[Sometimes a title comes to me like this along with the bones of the post. Sometimes I start to write with no idea what the title will be but one becomes obvious as I write. Rarely do I struggle to find a title for a post that I think is already done otherwise. But good, bad, or indifferent, I never post without a title. Not that it matters to anyone but me.]

These words, “The Morning Sun, When it’s In Your Face,” are from a song [Maggie May]. Certain lines fill my head with pictures. This is one. And even though that post resists being written it got me on a kick of using lines from songs as post titles. I’ve done so before, of course, but I don’t think I have ever done so many so close to each other — six times this month.

If I didn’t think my readership is too small and my references too obscure I would make it a contest to identify the songs from which I have pulled those lines. [I would even put a hint somewhere as to which six posts have those titles.] But, while I have never thrown a party that no one attended, I have posted questions that no one answered. [Wow, I just had the most incredible feeling of deja-vu typing that line!] I would even offer an i-Tunes gift card as a prize. Or something.

Without knowing the story behind this puzzle, I think it is pretty difficult. So I’ll explain.

To review — I said these letters share a unique characteristic:

c
g
q
w
y

Any guesses?

The explanation: During a word game [Scrabble maybe -- not that it matters really] someone played a word like “ess” [although it easily could have been any of several others besides ess -- again, not that it matters]. “Ess” may refer to anything that is shaped liked the letter S but it also refers to the actual letter S and to the way the letter S is pronounced. One of my nephews objected that spelling the pronunciation of the letter S using the letter S is the same as using a word in the definition of itself [which we have all been taught not to do].

While I understand his point, it got me thinking that most letters are used in spelling how to pronounce themselves. In fact, there are several letters I can’t think of any way not to use the letter in pronouncing itself. [Can you think how to describe the pronunciation of "B," for example, without using "B" in pronouncing it? We only get the "B" sound with a "B"....] So I decided to look them all up. [Using a different authority might provide slightly different results, but I rather doubt it.]

I used the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary just because that’s the one I use most often. According to that source, these are the only five letters for which spelling the pronunciation does not include the letter itself:

c = ˈsē
g = ˈjē
q = ˈkyü
w = ˈdə-bəl-(ˌ)yü, ˈdə-bə-; ˈdəb-(ˌ)yü, -yə; ˈdəb-yē
y = ˈwī

These letters share a unique characteristic:

c
g
q
w
y

Any guesses?