I was offered a selection of salad dressings over the drive thru speaker at a Burger King in Indiana recently.

According to the drive-thru worker, one of my choices was the “Honey Balasmic” [(sic) – pronounced ‘ba-LAZZ-mik’] dressing.

As one who can’t possibly ignore a situation like this and just let it go, I said,  “I’d like to have some Honey Balsamic”, with careful and deliberate pronunciation of the word balsamic, hoping she’d hear the difference in pronunciation and grow as a person with my gentle correction.

She confirmed my order, unknowingly or stubbornly using the ba-LAZZ-mik pronunciation again and asked me if that was correct? Carefully balancing the pros and cons of 1) letting her know that all was correct or 2) risking the perception of being an a-hole to another human being who is just trying to earn a buck by letting her know all was correct EXCEPT her pronunciation,  I opted to outwardly agree that it was correct and came to terms with my defeat. But, man, that internal struggle was a big one.