The thing that is weird about Missouri is that is is SO central as to be both a part of everything around it, and still unique enough to be, well, unique.
It is called the most Northern of the Southern States (it was once a legal slave state, believe it or not); the most Southern of the Northern States (my ex-in-laws from Chicago think I'm a redneck); the most Western of the Eastern states (my sister in Boston asked me to bring back some cowboy boots last Christmas), and the most Eastern of the Western states (a friend in Reno asked when I was going to send back some catalogs from NYC).
It is the most beautiful place I've seen, though, ....rich (to the point of almost overgrown) forests with wildflowers.
I'm writing a book partially based on my memoirs, and the introductory "Missouri chapter" is already called "God's Green Hell": based on a real incident where I remarked on the beauty of the flowers in the forest years ago, but was suddenly grabbed by the arm by one of the grad students...."Don't run up there, it's all poison ivy "....
Pretty here, though, and good people, and a hundred things to do, between concerts, fishing, festivals, fairs, or just watching the Cardinals game down at the bar...wouldn't trade it for nothing...
well, except for a plane ticket to the other side of the world
My friend went to Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, somewhere in the Solomons, Vanuatu, and Hawaii and a couple of other places that I'd have to break out the Atlas to find....I just moved, and am still unpacking, so I'm not sure which box the friggin' Atlas is in ...
Anyways, she said that the airfare was EXPENSIVE
dang....
[Aside: Savage needs a vacation. FReepers...Anyone want to make a pledge towards her airfare ticket to Australia, or at least towards a bottle of SPF 80 sunblock (with coconut oil) so she can PRETEND she's in Australia, hangin' out on the beach with Dasher, and Steve Irwin, and Crocodile Dundee, and that English dude from Cambridge that went there last year and never answered his phone calls, and that other buff dude with the nice tan...]
Sorry, I diverge....
Getting back to how you say it, though....
Oddly, the natives told me that the Western part of the state and the Eastern part pronounce it differently, and even then, what you say depends on whether or not you are running for Governor. They say that it is "mizz-'oh-REEE" in the Eastern part (from Columbia, the big University Seat, east to St. Louis, where the baseball Cardinals (who rule this year) and the (American) football Rams are), but that if you go west of Columbia towards Kansas City (home of the football Chiefs and baseball Royals, who suck this year), they say "mizz-OOOH-'RAH".
Of course, if you are running for governor, I was told that you must say "mizz-OOOH-'RAH" or else they won't elect you.
Not sure why...of course, I've only been here since 1997.
How much is a plane ticket to Sydney?
I moved here from Massachusetts (our crowded and very wealthy East Coast...where they know how to cook seafood, but boil red meat until it is grey, yuck!) Still, every time I go back to my father's house, he cooks a Maine Lobster, special, for me !!!
Hey: if you ever get to be on the TV programme "Jeopardy", and pick Geography trivia, I'll give you a hint....What state of the 'US Lower 48' borders more states than ANY other...(almost w/o saying, 'cause all Alaska and Hawaii border is, well, Canada, and the OCEAN!)
Challenge: Can you name them all w/o looking at an atlas?
Tennessee
What do you want to know the price of a ticket to Sydney?
Cut out the middle man and come straight to Melbourne. Direct flights leave from LA daily.
My fourth grade teacher in St. Louis pronounced it Mizz-OOH-ruh. She was the only one I knew who said it that way, and because she forced it on us, it really messed up my childhood.
She wouldn't accept my reasoning that Missouri ended with an "I," which by nature does not take an "uh" sound.
But even when we go to the Mizzou game in Columbia, the chant is "Mizz-OOH-ruh, Mizz-OOH-ruh, Mizz-OOH-ruh TIGERS!"
It's just one of those things.