How do you spell Mesopotamia ?

"You say either and I say either,
You say neither and I say neither
Either, either Neither, neither,
Let's call the whole thing off.
You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto
Potato, potahto, Tomato, tomahto,
Let's call the whole thing off"

Somewhere along the way reporters changed the way they said Iraq. I mean, it was like an exact moment; as if a mass memo went out.

We were a few years into the war and suddenly instead of saying "EYE-RACK", they were all saying "EAR-ROCK". And they were proud of it. And overnight "EAR-ROCK" became the norm and if you still said "EYE-RACK" you were a ham and egger.

Naturally, Iran got hit, too. It's not "EYE-RAN" anymore, now its "EAR-RON". Uh, ok. But let me ask you this... What did A Flock Of Seagulls say when they sang their SMASH HIT single "I Ran (So Far Away)" ? They weren't saying "EAR-RON... EAR-RON so far awaaaay", were they? No. They were not!

Now and then you'll hear a rogue reporter revert back to the old "EYE-RACK" and they'll sort of look around after they've said it to see if anyone is going to correct them.

I guess enough time has passed and we don't care about politically correct pronunciation or whatever it is. Personally, I think we should go back to calling the whole region Mesopotamia. There's no way to fuck that one up. Plus it gives it a bit of Euphratic flavour.

Seems I'm not alone in this wonder... See here, here or here.