Its been a pleasure to discover my 12 year old daughter is very good at dipping crabs, baits her own hooks, takes the croakers off the hook without using gloves, and is in general fearless about life. I know this age is supposed to be a problem but… fingers crossed I have not seen it.
LOL, I was wondering when somebody would mention the pronunciation of the state name, one of my indelible memories of my first visit to the “Balmer Merlin” area was hearing that pronunciation.
So do many Maryland inhabitants call their state “Merlin” or is that a real outlier?
Definitely not an outlier, but I say it closer to “mare-lin” if I had to guess.
Since I’m posting from my phone, quoting is a pain, but in my area we have Giant (Landover and Carlisle), Acme, Food Lion, and Weis in addition to super Walmart. So as DC said, Giant still exists, but it’s regional, of course (we don’t have Shoppers up here).
“Mare-lind” for my home area just NW of DC.
I grew up in Maryland (Bowie, but before Wal-Mart was there). “Mare-uh-lind” is how I’ve always pronounced it. Bowie is “Boo-ee”.
Well, it depends on how fast you’re saying it. Sometimes I leave out the “Uh” if I’m in a rush. And yes, Boo-ee it is. Just remember that “American Legion Memorial Bridge” is properly pronounced “Cabin John Bridge.”
Little known fact:
Anna Rundell was a distant cousin of the gal in that Billy Joel song, Brenda Renetti.
The French call it le tréma.
LOL! 
Good one!
Same here. (Not that I’m a native.)
–Cliffy
I was born in Bal-ti-more. I have lived in Mare-uh-land my entire life. Grew up in Anne Ah-RUN-del County.
I have never warshed or worshed a dish in worm wutter in my life, not even in the zinc. Nor do I celebrate Christmas in Dezember.
I have never called the PO-lice, stepped off a curve or gone downy shore.
I don’t say hun.
I refuse to say ‘the Dena’.
Wicomico is my county -
Why (Why is this blue?) - com ( like "com"munication) - ick (ie yucky) - co (long O)