How do you pronounce "Ian"?
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Topic: How do you pronounce "Ian"?
Posted By: refugee
Subject: How do you pronounce "Ian"?
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 09:30
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I’ve always pronounced it ee-an, the "I" sounding like ee in eel. Yesterday I met two Swedes who pronounced it eye-an (we were of course talking about the thick-as-a-brick guy). What is correct?
------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Replies:
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 09:37
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EE AN But Swedes would pronounce it different I guess ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 09:38
...but it is Ee an Anderson. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 09:48
Thanks, Ian! I couldn’t have asked for a better expert! 
------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 09:49
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I have never heard it pronounced any way other than "EE-an".
------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: Chozal
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 09:50
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Used to say Eye An. But then I watched some Jethro Tull interviews. So Ee An it is :3 ------------- https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Infinite-Progability-Drive/141225469388975" rel="nofollow - The Infinite Progability Drive , feeding you daily progressive/weird music for just a like <3 |
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 16:14
Ian 
------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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Posted By: Finnforest
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 16:19
Posted By: LinusW
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 16:25
ee-an. And I've heard both. But then I am a Swede. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/LinusW88" rel="nofollow - Blargh |
refugee wrote:Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 16:56
No, you’re not a Swede. Snusmumriken is international. ------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Posted By: LinusW
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 16:58
Fair enough  ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/LinusW88" rel="nofollow - Blargh |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 17:59
| It's my middle name and I'm Scottish; it's Ee-an. What I want to know is how I'd pronounce my good friend Iain's name. Is it Een ? I'm not sure. |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 18:05
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In the East of England it's pronounced slightly different again, the "a" sound is too open in "an", it's more an "uh" sound. EE-uhn.
The name was originally "John" spoken with a really strong gaelic accent and since there was no "J" in the gaelic alphabet (and in the early English alphabet "I" and "J" were interchangable), the "J" sound was pronounced as an "i" sound and the "an" was more like the "ohn", which through ease of speaking became "uhn". My mother always pronounced my name as "Ian" with a soft "d" at the beginning i.e. d'EE-uhn.
------------- What? |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 18:08
| How interesting. |
Posted By: zappaholic
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 19:43
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Pretty sure the only person who pronounces it "EYE-an" is Ian Ziering. ------------- "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 21:30
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How do you pronounce "Ian" at a RIO festival? |
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 21:40
Well people call me ee-an when I'm at the RIO festival unless of course they are Swedish in which case they call me eye-an (I do really have Swedish friends I meet at RIO bizarrely  )
I've also been called Jan and ion.
------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 21:44
| Now that we've worked that pressing issue out, I ask again; how does one pronounce Iain ? |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 21:44
Ion? Like the particle?  
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Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: May 21 2013 at 21:56
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Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee-an
Oh I've heard it before. Haha ------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 03:38
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In Spain you will find many people saying 'Eye-An' but then we Spanish are notorious for our poor English. But perhaps the most confusing English name pronunciation for us is Sean, nobody understands why is it pronounced 'Shon'. Seal is pronounced 'Seel' so we think that Sean should be pronounced something like 'Seen', and you will hear most Spanish people referring to 'Seen Connery'. Incidentally, why 'pronounce' is written with 'noun' but pronunciation is written with 'nun' (according to the automatic spelling checker in this site). Shouldn't it be 'pronounciation'? or is it one of those differences between UK English and US English? |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 04:27
Sean isn't an English name or pronunciation, it is Gaelic and would have an accent over the "a" - Seán. (which makes the Spanish prounciation even worse  )Sean Bean is pronounced Shawn Been, not Seen Been or Shawn Bhawn.  Sean is (yet) another version of John so it's pronunciation has a similar derivation (the Irish are wonderful talkers but terrible spellers), hence you pronounce it more like the French "Jean" than the English "Dean" (You would not say Jeen-Claude van Damn" for example) Other "John" derived names are Ivan, Ifan, Evan, Eion, Juan, Joan, Jan, Jens, Ian, Iain, Yan, Sean, Seon, Joke, Johan, Giovanni, Gian, Ioan and Hans
The English and American-English spellings are the same for both words - the difference is because they are pronounced differently, for once this is not a case of the itenerant "u" and you say them as they are spelt - 'nounce' and 'nunc[e]' PS: Iain is pronouced exactly the same as Ian. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 05:34
Same as Ian ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: tamijo
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 05:49
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People in Brittan, have been drunk for 2000 years, explains everything.
In scandinavia it was even worse, we added fly agaric to the beer, thats why we had to invent extra letters :
æ ø å ö , to get the correct sound of when you talk while at the same time vomit. ------------- Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 05:54
True. If we'd been sober we'd not have let you steal the idea for little plastic interlocking toy bricks from us.  ------------- What? |
Posted By: Gerinski
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 05:56
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Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 07:21
Maybe you could ask your friend?
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Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 07:25
That would be a schwa, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa" rel="nofollow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa ------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 07:31
Dean is correct here as my name 'Iain' is the (Scottish) Gaelic equivalent for 'John' but is pronounced just the same way as the more common 'Ian' However, my ex wife says it's pronounced 'limp' What a strange premise for a thread |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 07:44
Exactly ------------- What? |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: May 22 2013 at 17:57
So then who are these "Een" people I keep hearing reference to? |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 01:49
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http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/gif-inventor-steve-wilhite-says-it-should-be-pronounced-jif-8626882.html" rel="nofollow - GIF inventor Steve Wilhite says it should be pronounced 'jif'
I suspect he will lose this, but I agree with him even though there is little reason for pronouncing it that way - [off the top of my head at ten to eight in the morning] the only words I can think of that starts "gi" that are pronounce "ji" are Gill, Gillian and Gist ------------- What? |
Posted By: Stool Man
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 02:04
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In some places, the letter J is pronounced like the letter I. And the letter A is pronounced like the letter O.
This of course, means that Ian Anderson used to be the singer in Yes ------------- rotten hound of the burnie crew |
Posted By: Stool Man
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 02:08
Dean, have you never seen a giant ginger giraffe?  ------------- rotten hound of the burnie crew |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 02:12
------------- What? |
Posted By: Stool Man
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 02:38
no, he's called Jim, he's a Gypsy Gigolo ------------- rotten hound of the burnie crew |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 03:16
Must be something to do with the geometric geography of the gin soaked gem genie then. ------------- What? |
Posted By: smartpatrol
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 08:25
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Eye ann
------------- http://bit.ly/1kqTR8y" rel="nofollow">  The greatest record label of all time! |
Posted By: Evolver
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 08:36
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My middle name is Ian. My son's name is Ian. Most, but not all, of my family (a blend of Russian, Polish and Scottish) pronounce it eye-an. Almost everyone else pronounce it ee-an (my preference). A pediatrician who treated my son when he was an infant called him ee-on. ------------- Trust me. I know what I'm doing. |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 08:51
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Posted By: Formentera Lady
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 10:09
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Now that we have solved 'Ian', how do we pronounce 'Gillan'? With a hard g or like 'ji'?
------------- http://theprogressiveweb.blogspot.de" rel="nofollow - Visit me in Second Life to talk about music. |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 10:17
| Ah, this question puzzles me for years. Can one ask Gillian Anderson an autograph if one isn't even sure of the pronounciation of liter... Er, sorry: the pronounciation of her first name? |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 10:26
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Gillian is pronounced Gillian. There is no other way. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Formentera Lady
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 10:35
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Is it possible that Gillian is pronounced differently than Gillan?
------------- http://theprogressiveweb.blogspot.de" rel="nofollow - Visit me in Second Life to talk about music. |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 10:40
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Posted By: Stool Man
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 10:43
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In China I once heard the name "Simon" pronounced "see-mun", with hilarious results ------------- rotten hound of the burnie crew |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 10:44
Completely differently. ------------- What? |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 12:07
Yes, because they're different words. Gillian has a soft "G" as in "Jill" and Gillan (as in Ian) has a hard "G". Ah, the wonders of the English language - see " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti" rel="nofollow - ghoti " for further details. |
Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 12:09
And this guy really confuses things. |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 12:12
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French language can be worse. The sound "o" can be written in many forms: "seau" and its plural form "seaux" ("bucket" / "buckets"), "sots" ("fool"), "saut" ("jump"), "sceau" ("sceal")... are pronounced the same way. |
Posted By: Evolver
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 12:31
And "jpg" should be pronounced "gay-peg"? ------------- Trust me. I know what I'm doing. |
Posted By: zappaholic
Date Posted: May 23 2013 at 20:44
"Throat-Wobbler Mangrove". ------------- "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken |
Posted By: Formentera Lady
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 08:01
Thanks for clarifying these things! You don't believe that I am learning English from this site, do you?
 ------------- http://theprogressiveweb.blogspot.de" rel="nofollow - Visit me in Second Life to talk about music. |
Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 09:04
I have a Finnish friend who told me that most Scandinavian teenagers of her vintage (she's in her early 50's) learned English from listening to Beatles records, (with a resultant unwittingly comedic Liverpudlian 'Scouse' accent) |
Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 10:23
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I once met an Italian woman who claimed she had learned English from listening to early Genesis. Her English was excellent, btw. Peter Gabriel & co are obviously good teachers.
------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Posted By: irrelevant
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 11:22
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"Lan" ------------- https://gabebuller.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow - New album! http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7385" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7385 |
Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 14:59
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------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 15:21
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^
------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: May 26 2013 at 17:05
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In doubt, just call him "Hey, you!". That should do the trick. |
Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: June 20 2013 at 15:26
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You're all wrong. Ian means God is gracious. It has nothing to do with the gaelic language contrary to what you may find on the internet. ------------- |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: June 20 2013 at 15:28
Ian is gaelic for John. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: June 20 2013 at 15:35
No No No. my name happens to be Ian and even though my mother was Scottish being Scottish or of Gaelic descent had nothing to do with naming me. The  always call me Yan when I lived in Quebec. I now live in a free country called Canada.------------- |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: June 20 2013 at 15:44
| How do you pronounce "Canada"? |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: June 20 2013 at 15:58
 How you got the name has nothing to do with where it originally came from. Ian is the gaelic form of John derived from the same hebrew name (Yehohanan) and has the same hebrew meaning: "god is gracious" or "god's gracious gift" or "graced by god" depending on the translation/transliteration you happen to read. The "Y" to "I" change came through the translation from hebrew to greek and the interchange of "J" and "I" from greek into latin ... there was no "J" in the gaelic alphabet so Jon/Jan became Ion/Ian.
If Ian has such a biblical meaning that was completely unrelated to "John" then there would be mention of the name in scripture or ancient text, yet there are none. Also there are 425 St. Johns but only one St. Ian... and he was 11th century Scottish. ------------- What? |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: June 20 2013 at 15:59
------------- What? |
Posted By: Stool Man
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 04:41
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'kin' 'ard, eh?
------------- rotten hound of the burnie crew |
Posted By: ESHWOR KC
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 04:57
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ian
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Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 07:40
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What is this eh? I never say eh! I hate all this Canadian hippie sh*t. We have a dumb flag that looks like it was drawn by a knidergarten kid that has a leaf on it. Maple leaf trees only grow in a small percentage of Canada. Our national symbol is a pesky little rodent. Our militaryhas been reduced to nothing more than a joke. Our Prime Minister is a fat lying slob. Our comedians are not funny. We can't play hockey anymore. I wish the world in general would get over this illusion that Canada is cool and great. If I could move to the moon I would. And Ian is not a Gaelic word. It's a made up word. Sometime when I was a kid my mother told me that it meant God is Gracious because she was happy that God gave me to her. Why does everything from progrock to first names have to have profound deep meanings? I'm done. Now I can have a nice day.
 ------------- |
Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 09:25
 ------------- What? |
Posted By: Stool Man
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 10:07
eh? ------------- rotten hound of the burnie crew |
Posted By: Knobby
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 10:25
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The Welsh pronounce it "Ee-an??????????????"
As in "Got to go see Ee-an????????? in the villey-adge??????"
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Posted By: Dean
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 10:27
Craig Campbell makes me laugh and Stewart Francis is one of the top three non sequitur one-liners around. And they both have gaelic names - there must be something aboot the water that causes that. ------------- What? |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 14:30
 ...or something like that. For my part, I tend to pronounce "Hi-Yan", so I get the attention of all the Ians in the place. |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 14:32
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How to pronounce Ian? Like sword, only with a j. ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 16:34
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I'm much obliged to you for making it clear
That I'm not here. You have to love PA. You ask a simple question, and then … God is Gracious! ------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 18:42
What's wrong with pesky little rodents?, your PM is overqualified for the role, Russell Peters is spine-crackingly funny and you were deported from the moon remember? BTW my first name is Iain (and ain't all words, 'made up words'?) Staple me, to a maple tree..... ------------- 
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Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: June 21 2013 at 19:40
SCTV and Kids in the Hall were great but I guess somehow the lack of an audience made them seem unfunny to some. Thing is, they sometimes run M*A*S*H without a laugh track and it's far better. |
Posted By: Dayvenkirq
Date Posted: June 22 2013 at 02:11
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Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: June 22 2013 at 12:52
No he fights for the freedom of other countries. Canada has never fought a major war on it's own soil. We're a bunch of suckers for punishment. ------------- |
Posted By: CPicard
Date Posted: June 22 2013 at 13:04
But Canada almost conquered the USA in 1812! Don't you feel proud of that?  |
Posted By: progbethyname
Date Posted: June 22 2013 at 14:24
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^ ------------- Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣 |
Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: June 22 2013 at 15:43
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The War of 1812 wasn't even a war. ------------- |
Posted By: refugee
Date Posted: June 23 2013 at 12:57
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This thread seems to be the appropriate place to wish you all a HAPPY ST JOHN’S EVE!
------------- He say nothing is quite what it seems; I say nothing is nothing (Peter Hammill) |
Posted By: Tapfret
Date Posted: July 04 2013 at 13:11
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ee-an Whoever posted about the interchangeable "J" and "I" was ultimately correct. My Norwegian mother-in-law gets embarrassed because she can't say it any other way than Jan (yon), to which I reply how much I enjoy that version being it probably more accurate than any English version. Not even remotely correct versions used by trolls and telemarketers: eye-en eyen ayn ee-on een My last name is McIntyre. Most telemarketers just get hung up on. But I have a special place in Hell set up for those that call and ask for "Eye en meck in tree"...idiots. ------------- https://www.last.fm/user/Tapfret" rel="nofollow">  https://bandcamp.com/tapfret" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp |