The "When Will People Learn?...It's Pronounced LANG-kiss'Tur! Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Watching one of my favorite game shows, "Jeopardy!" A few years ago a young man by the name of Brad Rutter became the champ on the show.  He first appeared on the show on October 30, 2000, when the rules stipulated that a contestant who won five consecutive days had to retire, undefeated and was guaranteed a spot on the Tournament of Champions.  Brad retired as an undefeated five-day champion with $55,102 in winnings and was guaranteed a spot on the Tournament of Champions.  In 2004 another young man, Ken Jenniings, came on the show and by then the rule that limited a contestant to five wins had been dropped.  Ken won 74 straight games and took home $2,520,700.  The two later faced off in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions where Brad won $2,100,000. Recently,  Ken Jennings has become the host of the show and on the January 11 episode of the show, Ken posed this answer to one of the contestants in the $2,000 Double Jeopardy category..."The Ex-State Capital": "Settled by Pennsylvania Dutch, this city has had many titles: county seat, state capital & on September 27, 1777, our nation's capital."  I instantly yelled out at my TV...."What's Lancaster, Pennsylvania!

Alex and Brad

Well, all three contestants got the question wrong, including Connor Sears, the two-day winner who guessed "What is Philadelphia?"  Seconds later, Ken botched up the correct response when he mispronounced "LAN-caster" as opposed to the correct answer of "LANG-kiss-tur."  Now...I know that many of you reading my story today still will not be able to pronounce the name of my hometown of Lancaster.  And, I'm not sure how I can better give you the correct pronunciation.  I guess you must live in Lancaster for a year or two before you begin to pronounce it correctly.  If only Brad Rutter would have been the MC instead of Ken Jennings, since Brad grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  And, how would I know that?  Well, he had his high school locker right outside my classroom door when he was a senior at Manheim Township High School in Neffsville, Pennsylvania.  Yeah...I know it wasn't Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but Neffsville which is a stone's throw away from Lancaster!  You did just say or think "LANG-kiss-tur" didn't you?  I certainly hope so!  I know for sure that if Brad had been the MC for the show he would have had it correct!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.