Dear Gordon, I'm from midwestern America and just about everyone I know pronounces it "pear-a-dice" like the fruit at the beginning. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard it "pah-rah-dice."
When I had an internship in London, our program coordinator was Scottish, and he pronounced a number of words very differently than us Americans were used to. In fact, one time at an internship group meeting, he kept asking us what "fruSTRAted us" and none of the Americans could understand him! Finally, after he said it three times, I told my colleagues, "He means 'FRUstrated,'" and they all said, "Ohhhh..." In other news, I recently came home for Easter prepared to steal my dad's tape of "Court and Spark" to accompany the tape of HOSL I stole from him in March. (He recently got a car with a CD player and is allowing my sister and me to take any tapes we want.) I put "Court and Spark" into my mom's boombox as I was getting dressed this morning and found it was worn out, so I threw it away! : ( I finished getting dressed to the tune of CSN's "Daylight Again," which was pretty good. I think dad still has a vinyl copy of "Court and Spark" in the basement that I can copy. I'll have to go spelunking after I finish my e-mail. -Emily
