We are currently reading a play in one of my literature classes in which there is a central character named Ventidius. Notice the “d,” functioning as most letter d’s do, making the d as in “deem” sound in Ventidius. My professor apparently failed to notice the letter d in Ventidius, while also failing to realize that the sound the letter d makes is quite different than the sound a letter t makes. Unless you just change the d sound to a t sound; that is all together different, and apparently allowed, and also, more amusing.
Because today, while my professor was discussing the honorable attributes of Ventidius, she looks at us seriously and comments on the character’s namesake. “This was a hard name for me to remember,” she says. “That is, until I connected it with the word ‘tits.’ It’s been easier ever since.”
Enter me stifling my laughter, and tilting my head in disbelief, and raising my eyebrows as if to ask, “Is this lady for real? And did she really just say that aloud?” No really. She said this. Aloud. And Proud. And then she giggled. I can’t make this kind of stuff up.
And after she admits to associating our honorably attributed (Or did she mean to say “well endowed?”) character with the boobies, the majority of our class matched her brand of giggling with their own, especially after she continued, from that point forward in her lecture, to refer to the honorable Ventidius as the honorable “Ventittyus.”