Opinion Bleg

Tell me about your oven mitts... Anyone use one of these? Or something like it? I think Shortcake would flip if I got this puppy one. I need some new oven mitts. I'm tired of the old fashioned fabric ones I've been buying wearing out on me. Something will spill on it, then it has to be washed, then the protective padding gets thin so that I find myself rushing to set the hot pan down before my fingers get too hot to hold it.

So... tell me what you use and why you love it. Thanks!

How do YOU pronounce Joachim?

From the combox below, Bev asks:

Question for you: What is the correct way to pronounce Joachim? (I fear we've been butchering it for years! :)

Bev,
That's a good question. I had always heard his name pronounced JOE-uh-kim but recently I have heard it pronounced wah-KEEM. That sounds too Spanish to my ear. This website indicates that it is pronounced JOE-uh-keem. But a person familiar with Aramaic says here that it is properly pronounced yo-a-CHIM with a hard, gutteral ch sound. In German, it would be yo-AHK-im so it really depends on what language you are considering. I remember thinking that the name Giselle (zhee-SELL) sounded so beautiful in French but was shocked to hear it pronounced GEE-suh-luh in German. Most historians agree that Our Lord and also his mother would have spoken Aramaic (along with Hebrew and maybe even Kione Greek) and since I have a SIL who speaks Aramaic, I can ask her to pronounce it for me and get back to you.