Longtime readers will recall that our little family spent two very pleasant weeks in Portugal this spring, a trip you can read all about if you weren’t here earlier.

Somehow, however, I’ve managed to have several hundred conversations about our trip after the fact during which I referred to the great country as “Portugo.”

Oh course I know that it’s spelled Portugal, and I’ve always written it that way. But for some reason for as long as I can remember I have pronounced this with a “go” at the end instead of a “gal.”

Fortunately my brave English-major brother Johnny finally held an intervention one night this week over dinner, and put me on the course towards overcoming my disability.

As a first step, let me formally apologize to the people of Portugal for unintentionally maligning their country through mispronounciation. You have license to refer to Canada as “Cnda” or “Canadoo” or “Candanga” when in conversation with me, and I promise not to take offence.