Two random thoughts on the "silent letter":

Tom Lehrer told the story of his friend Hen3ry -- "the 3 is silent." As memory serves (which it generally does into the net), Hen3ry was the one who majored in animal husbandry "until they caught him at it."

Moving right along here, somebody Hen3ry knew, let's call him Fran4k, went to the supermarket and asked for broccoli. The man behind the counter said, "I'm sorry, we don't have any broccoli today." Fran4k said, "Hmmm...in that case, I'll have some broccoli." A bit perturbed, the man replied, "I just told, you, we don't have any broccoli." Fran4k thought for a moment and said, "Oh, OK, how about some, uh, broccoli?"
At this point the man turned a whiter shade of pale, followed by a deep crimson, and said, very quietly, "Listen, mister, can you spell the let in lettuce?" Fran4k looked puzzled, but said, "Sure, L-E-T." "Good," said the man. "Now can you spell the tom in tomato?" "T-O-M." "Very good," said the man. "Now, can you spell the f*ck in broccoli?" Fran4k looked even more puzzled. "What do you mean? There's no f*ck in broccoli." At the top of his lungs, the man shouted, "That's what I've been trying to tell you! There ain't no f*ckin' broccoli!!!"

(Mommy, did my doctor really say that!?)

Aloha,
Mark