I feel I have too many to list, or even recognize.

I tend to pronounce "misled" as "MYZ-ld", since I read it that way for a long time before I heard anyone say it out loud.

I have developed the tendency to sing at my cats; the latest refrain is, "What do the cats do? What do the cats do? What do the cats do? I do it all for you!" The cats seem mostly unimpressed with this outpouring of devotion.

I tend to pronounce "misled" as "MYZ-ld"

Ach du lieber! I have always done this. I even invented a definition for the verb "to misle": going through someone else's belongings for the purpose of planting incriminating evidence.

If I'm making up my mind about something and I hear a bird singing, I usually think it's my mom trying to get my attention. In fact, even though reincarnation isn't something I really believe in, I tend to think after my mom died she became birds.

When I open a fortune cookie, I always eat the entire cookie before reading the fortune. Otherwise the fortune won't be accurate. When I tell people about this custom they usually say something like "Oh, does it really work that way?"

Yeah, that's how fortune cookies really work.

Oh, yes, I recently had a similar argument about fortune cookies! I thought everyone knew that you had to eat the cookie before reading the fortune.

For various reasons, I believe my mother tries to contact me through hummingbirds, so I tend to pay attention when they are trying to get my attention. I don't really believe in reincarnation either, but I think there's some way for people who have died to use creatures who are living to communicate, and I think that's what my mother does through hummingbirds. Not all hummingbirds, mind you, just those that try to get my attention.

Also, right after my mother died, and I was realizing she was contacting me through hummingbirds, I read a book that talked about how the author's loved one was contacting him through praying mantises, and so I also give a great deal of respect to any praying mantis I meet, because I assume it's conveying a message to a loved one.

Also, they're super cool.

misle-d that's great. English spelling is rife with these kind of misleading spellings. (You may have seen this pre WWII doggerel poem teaching Dutch people how misleading English spelling really is)
I've been reading English since I was about ten. Pilfering my fathers bookcase for literature. So my vocabulary is quite good. But when I had a relationship with a US mefite I found out that I didn't know how to pronounce a lot of words since I'd never heard them spoken. Which in English is a big problem. Not so much in German or French actually.
When I found out that 'herbs' is supposed to be pronounced without the aitch I just resisted though. It should be herbs! I have to suppress the urge to lecture native speakers on this. 'you're doing it wrong!'


Hummingbirds are magical. It's one of the great things that I remember from visiting San Francisco; seeing this magical hovering creature near a bush along the road.
I love it when abundant things are still amazing. In summer I'm always mesmerised by seeing poppies in the grass; the colour contrast between the deep deep red and the deep green is almost too great for human eyes to grasp. It hints of a transcendent reality that is just too vast for mere mortals to comprehend.

I pronounce "biopic" as "biOPic" and plan to continue doing so.

jouke, herbs is said with the aitch in the UK. When I hear Americans say it without, it sounds pretentious to me, as if they're trying to speak French.

For me it was the word 'segue' that had me foxed until a couple of years ago. When reading it, I'd say it in my head as 'seg'. If I heard someone talk about an actual segue, I thought they were saying 'segway'.

My oddest quirk is that I never bite into a piece of fruit (apart from bananas, which are different). I always cut my apples, pears, peaches, etc up with a paring knife and remove any pips or stone before eating it. I think this comes from my childhood when my mum would give my sister and me half an apple each and would core it with a potato peeler before giving it to us. These days I use a melon baller.

OR: Your emphasis on the 2nd syllable sounds much more 'correct' to me.

Senyar; I'm glad that at least some people in the world are sane wrt the pronunciation of 'herbs'.
Also; Isn't dropping aitches part of a cockney accent? :-)

I actually didn't even know it was supposed to be bio-pic until a year or two ago. So I'm sticking with biOPic, too.

Yes, I think the without the H herbs is an American thing.

I have to put my socks on before any other piece of clothing. The idea of wearing jeans or something flapping around my ankles without socks drives me nuts. But only if I'm intending to wear socks. For whatever reason it doesn't bother me when I'm wearing jeans and flats. Only if I'm planning on putting on lace up shoes.

I don't know either.

No, it is biOPic. It just is. I don't want to entertain any other notions.


Wow.


Whenever I hear anyone say "Lord, I'm not a praying man . . . " I always think of the speaker as a giant praying mantis/human hybrid.

I am always checking for my keys. I've locked myself out of cars, houses, offices, hotel rooms, you name it. Even then I'll still mess up and leave them in the trunk or something.

I save all my copper (pre 82) pennies and put them in a big bottle bank. The original one was bigger but it split open during a move.

While "herb" the cooking term is pronounced without the H in the US, "Herb" the name is pronounced with the H.

If someone said "herbs" and pronounced the 'h' my mind would think that they were talking about an army of this guy:

≡ Click to see image ≡

Yeah copper pennies and coins before 1980. Why? Who knows. And my "S" starts at the bottom and then goes to the top when I write on. All "R"s are cap, whether big or large in size. .
I still do a near daily 'what I did today' in a Black n Red journal, four or five years now. I don't think a darn bit of it will be of much interest in 100 years. :)

I need some small amount of light in the room to sleep properly. I also leave a light on in the living room all night, unless someone's staying in the house with me.

My hands must be covered for me to fall asleep. I don't mean with gloves, but with some sort of bed linens.

In the winter this is easy since I sleep under a blanket or duvet. Summertime I usually sleep under a sheet so there will be something I can pull over my hands. But on especially warm nights or hot afternoons, I drape a handkerchief or small towel over my hands in order to fall asleep.

I wear a nightcap, and pull it over my eyes. Shamelessly.

I don't let food touch my lips. I have been told this is very odd. But if you put a fork or spoon full of food into your mouth why do you need to use your lips? They don't chew or taste do they? I have no knowledge of doing this. It is automatic. I only know I do it because people who have been close to me for a long time have told me so.

When alone I sing nonsense songs out loud sometimes. Things like "Blue white cow long tree poof like digs cheese" Sometimes it gets me dirty looks from the cats.

I haven't made my bed in 10 years.

I need to be able to stick my feet out of the bedclothes at night. My feet are always too hot and at night I need to be able to stick them out into the colder air to cool them off.

I have to make my bed. And the pillows must be arranged in a particular order, with the one I like least furthest from my pillow.

I have to keep up on Jeopardy! and the NYT crossword.

I bite my cuticles. (I am trying hard to break this habit.)

I can't stand dirty dishes in the sink.

There are a lot more. It is always a marvel to me that my Bear puts up with me.