Wouldn't work. Aren't the females in the Bond movies supposed to be hot? This chick's face would scare a freight train into taking a dirt road.

There was a women's volleyball player of slavic descent at Berkeley a couple years back whose name was "Jerkoff." (even spelled that way, which almost took the fun out of it)

I don't recall if her given name was appropriately juvenile, tho.

It took me a while to get the joke because, being an American who actually knows how to pronounce Slavic names, I didn't get what was so funny about the name "Man-ditch."

Hoke, Ace, whoever you are -- you're such a tard.

And "Ivana" is pronounced "ee-vah-nah."

Here in Iowa , back in the day of 6-girl basketball (ok, it was the 70's!) there was a girl named 'Fonda Dix' who played in the state tournament.
Every few years somebody comes over to the HawkeyeReport message board and asks if it is true - and Ivana Mandic is helping to keep Fonda Dix' legend alive!

It took me a while to get the joke because, being an American who actually knows how to pronounce Slavic names . . .

Well, aren't you special?

I'll bet most of us here probably know "how to pronounce" them too, as we were constantly reminded by TV and radio news anchors during the wars in the former Yugoslavia who went of their way to pronounce "Mee-losh-e-vitch" et al. (As a friend puts it, listening to NPR, it seemed like Milosevic's name picked up an extra 'h' every week or two.)

You see, the thing is, it's not that Americans don't know how to pronounce Slavic names. It's that we don't care. We're Americans, and that means we'll pronounce them however the hell we want.

Hope that helps. Have a nice day.

Lucas just phoned it in for the new SW installment.

Caption for the gif at Dave's site:

George Lucas expresses his respect for fans awaiting the new "Star Wars: Episode, Yawn"

"I got your box-office right here"

I was forced to learn how the "ic" is pronounced when we had an employee named Panic. He actually worked in IT as a system administrator of all things...

Anyway, I actually think we Americans do quite nicely, what with having to pattern-match foreign names to their nationality, and apply some understanding of their rules. Why is the "Ng" in Nguyen pronounced differently from Ngana in English? Only because one is recognized as Vietnamese and the other as African.

Here's one of my favorites: Nutsa Kukhianidze

"Nutsa." That's one step below "Balsac" in the lewd names category.

Cute girl though.

Alex:

No need to take umbrage at what was meant to be a friendly dig at Ace (or Hoke) for his juvenile sense of humor.

Btw, although I'm an American, being married to a Slav doesn't leave me much of a choice in how to pronounce Slavic names ;-)

Have a nice day.

Dammit, and I'd picked "Ivana Mandic" as my stage name for summer productions with the Provincetown Players. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Do you think "Phil McCrackin" is too cliche to be anything but gobsmackingly vile?

James Bond? Isn't that the guy who retired with Sean Connery?

Looks t'me like her name is pronounced "ee-vah-nah MAHN-ditch".

But "Ivana Mandic" is funnier.