I'm new here, so be gentle with me, but...
I was born "tongue-tied", which doesn't mean that you find it difficult to chat up women, but that the little strip of sinewy flesh that holds the bottom of my tongue in my mouth is attached very close to the tip of mine.

It means I can't poke my tongue out very far (cue stampede of women in the other direction) and it means that, as a toddler, I couldn't pwonounce the letter 'R'. It'd either come out as the full Jonathan Ross or, more often, it'd come out as the softer "Winchester 'R'" that sounds almost like a soft 'v'.

My family - at the doc's behest - therefore did everything they could to get me to say my 'r's properly. I'd go to visit my grandparents, and remember peering up at a room full of grown-ups all sporadically and randomly rrrrrrolling Rs, or launching into a sonorous rrrrrendition of "Round and round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran". I wasn't allowed any tea until I made a half-decent stab at it.

Nowadays at 42, I'm still tongue-tied, but have learned to get by in every area of life that requires a tongue (ladies, it's safe to come back!). But it really pisses me off to hear the sheer number of broadcasters that can't do their 'R's.

Oddly, Jonathan Ross doesn't piss me off the most - he at least makes gags about it.

No, it's soft-Rsed tossbuckets like Evan Davies who have successful and well-paid bwoadcasting cawee-ahs despite not being able to speak the English fucking language that really get my goat.
Other Rseless souls...
Cawol Thatcher - with the additional hate-fuel of only being famous because of the womb she was unlucky enough to prolapse out of, being the least hateful twunt in one year's "I'm A Loser Take Pity On Me", and comparing footballers to golliwogs.
Mike Dilger - the useless Brummie wildlife bloke on "The One Show". You know, the one who has all the on-camera charisma of a freshly-laid dog's egg and the lyrical vocal delivery of a bored Wolverhampton librarian reading the telephone book aloud (but only once they get to the letter S).
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Tue 9 Feb 2010, 17:21, 5 replies)

Hahahahaha "hate-fuel"
Deliciously bilious!
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 9 Feb 2010, 17:40, closed)

It's called a Rhotacism

( Two Hats I saw someone eating M&M's with a spoon, Tue 9 Feb 2010, 18:59, closed)

You'll fit in well here.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 9 Feb 2010, 20:30, closed)

I was tongue-tied
I was unable to pronounce 'th' as in 'thought', it always came out as an f sound which drove my mother crazy, as she is rather well spoken. It wasn't until I was at the dentist one day when he casually mentioned, as an aside, "oh and when is his op booked for?" or words to that effect. One quick snip later and I was fine. Well, aside for having one of my testicles making a bid for freedom through my intestines, but that's a whole other story.

Oh, and welcome!
( kappynitty doubled your entendre on, Wed 10 Feb 2010, 9:14, closed)

Couldn't that be corrected with surgery?

( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Wed 10 Feb 2010, 13:02, closed)