> My first name is Michael. When people ask whether i go by Mike or Michael, i just say yes and let them decide what to call me.
>
> My last name, Springstead, gets the gratuitous "You mean, like Bruce?" so much that i'm almost surprised when it doesn't happen. The best time, though, was when some uppity elementary school teacher (not mine) tried to tell me we pronouce our name wrong. Huh? It's pronounced "SPRIHNG-stehd-no surprise, right? This teacher tried telling me that "-ead" is not pronounced eh in English. So i just felt stupid for her, said something quickly about the present and past tenses of the word "read" being spelled the same way, and left before i had time to slap her.
>
> Penny*loves most teachers*stamp

Yeah. Beacause we all know that any given sequence of letters can only ever be pronounced in one specific way in English.

winter"It's true, that"mute