Many of you may understand my frustration: my wife is always mumbling, and I can’t understand a word she says! So, what did I do? I took out a small loan and bought a pair of expensive hearing aids. Over $4000! Even a good pair of over-the-counter hearing aids can still cost over $1500.

But as I have become more mature and wiser, I recently realized, my hearing is not the problem. No, the problem is much simpler: she just can’t enunciate clearly enough! And once I had that “ah-ha” moment, I realized there is a much simpler and cheaper solution than expensive hearing aids.

She needs to practice tongue twisters!

You see, tongue twisters are an effective way to improve your enunciation skills.

They strengthen your mouth muscles; help improve muscle memory; and provide a quick and convenient way to perfect specific sounds.

You can start with the common tongue twisters you learned as a child.

1.) “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

2.) “She sells seashells by the seashore.”

3.) “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”

To improve your enunciation, make sure you pronounce each sound. Then you can have fun concentrating on how fast you say each tongue twister. Start by quickly repeating each tongue twister three times; then really push yourself by repeating each one ten times. And remember enunciate!

If those were too easy, you can advance to the more challenging tongue twisters.

1.) “A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.”

2.) “Fresh French fried fly fritters.”

3.) “I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and upon the slitted sheet I sit.” (Be careful with that one. You could be embarrassed!)

After you learn those three, you can now advance to the master level. Here are the top three tongue twisters considered the hardest to pronounce in the world.

1.) “Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.”

2.) “Brisk brave brigadiers brandished broad bright blades, blunderbusses, and bludgeons — balancing them badly.”

3.) “Rory the warrior and Roger the worrier were reared wrongly in a rural brewery.” (This one contains two of the hardest English words to pronounce: “rural” and “brewery.”)

Now that you know how to train your wife or husband to enunciate using these tongue twisters, this simple solution will save you thousands of dollars. I wish I had known this sooner because I would be a much richer man today.

Now if I can just get everyone else to stop mumbling by practicing tongue twisters!

BRAIN TEASE: These have been around the block a few times so they may be too simple for some of you.

1.) Which is heaviest a pound of feathers, a pound of wood, a pound of steel?

2.) How many times can you take 7 away from 49?

3.) What occurs twice in a lifetime, but once in every year. Twice in a week but never in a day?

The next question for your “Soul Portrait”: What are your hopes and prayers?

The singing cowboy who became one of the biggest Western stars of all time starring in over forty movies and his own television series was Gene Autry.

My wife and I were on vacation in Bellingham over the Labor Day weekend and since I needed to submit this week’s column early, next week I will include everyone who sent in the correct answer.

This month I am going to change it up a bit and see how well you know the lyrics of popular songs from the 60s and 70s – and don’t be surprised if you start singing along.

Since my favorite music was from Motown, I’m going to start with a song written by Smokey Robinson and recorded in 1965 by one of the most popular Motown vocal groups. For this week’s “Remember When” question, what was the name of the song that included the lyrics:

I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day / When it’s cold outside I’ve got the month of May / I guess you’d say, What can make me feel this way?

Email your answer to mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, call 541-296-4788, or send it with a photograph of Motown’s Funk Brothers.

Well, it’s been another week, finishing another box of cereal – and still no prize! Until we meet again, before making a big fuss, think about what Vic Gold said, “The squeaking wheel doesn’t always get the grease. Sometimes it gets replaced!”

“Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

Answers:

1.) ¡ǝɯɐs ǝɥʇ llɐ ǝɹɐ ʎǝɥ┴

2.) ¡ᄅㄣ ɯoɹɟ ㄥ ƃuᴉʞɐʇ ǝq llᴉʍ noʎ ɥɔᴉɥʍ ɹǝʇɟ∀ ˙ǝɔuO

3.) ¡ǝɯɐs ǝɥʇ llɐ ǝɹɐ ʎǝɥ┴