"Would you like sais with that?"

My aunt treated me to lunch yesterday at Panera, a sandwich, soup, and salad place leaning more toward Starbucks than Subway.

At Panera, the counterpersons take down your name and call you when your order is ready. The space's acoustics leave something to be desired, however, and to simplify things, my aunt opted to give her two-syllable last name over her four-syllable first name. Her last name is Sia (as in "See ya later."). She pronounced her name and spelled it, but neither method helped. The counterperson heard "Sai." (Sigh.)

"Sai, your order is ready. Sai?"

For more phonetic foibles, read this entry from the archives.