LEBNIN, if you please

Central Pennsylvania
Photocredit: http://davidottenstein.com/2010/06/
photographing-in-central-pennsylvania/

I carpooled to the Women’s March with Casey and Steven and a friend of theirs I had never met before. Turns out, Rhoda's hometown is the town next to my hometown. 

We both grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, I mean the bleeding heart of the place. Rhoda hails from Lancaster— which only tourists pronounce LanCAAAASTER. Like nails on a chalkboard, people. Correct pronunciation is LANcister. 

Me— I’m from outside of Lebanon. Please say that LEBnin. Or if you’re really Dutchie, you’d say LEPnin.

So when Rhoda told me she married a man from LEBANON, I had to sit back in my seat and bluster a little bit. Here was a gal from LANCISTER totally mispronouncing LEBNIN, her hometown’s sister city for crissake.

No, said Rhoda. She married a man from LEBANON. Beirut, to be precise.