[meteorite-list] Re: Meteorite Pronunciation

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:50:24 2004
Message-ID: <3CAFEB79.755DBA51_at_bhil.com>

Hi, List,

    As long as we're lining up to be the official pronouncers of
meteoritic names based on our native locales, put me down as the
native speaker for BENLD (Illinois, 1938), the first recorded
meteorite to hit an automobile. I live just 10.2 miles from its
ground zero, or should I say, its garage zero.
    The car, a 1927 Ford, was parked in its garage when, sometime
during the night of September 28, 1938, a 1.77 kilogram H6
perforated the garage roof, car roof, car seat, car floorboard,
and concrete floor in a nearly vertical trajectory.
    Almost nobody who lives more than ten miles away from that
little burg has ever pronounced its name correctly. The corect
pronunciation is: beh - neld' with the accent on the second
syllable. The town was named after its founder, Ben L. Dorsey.
The almost entire main mass of the "car-killer" (sorry, there was
no dog in the car) lives in the Field Museum in Chicago. The
whereabouts of the car is unknown.

Sterling K. Webb
Received on Sun 07 Apr 2002 01:47:22 AM PST