How Are We Supposed to Have Fun?

’The day after my first post on the pronunciation of mischievous, I received a detailed email message from a recently retired English professor with the playful subject line “A Mischievous Response.” Richard (as I will call him, because that is his name — and he gave me permission to quote from his email) had concerns about my use of the phrase “fun, mischievous connotations,” and the concerns had nothing to do with the extra syllable I put in: “mischievious.” In fact, he noted, there are few pr...