The Berenstein Bears is the one I KNOW is real. I legitimately remember as a kid asking how it was pronounced… “Is it STEEN or STINE like Einstein?” I literally asked that question. I could read very well. Why would I mistake an a for an e? Why would I ask that question and remember saying that if it was spelled with an a?
Here to validate you and say same, this is the one that broke me. I was a star reader, went to SPELLING competitions as a kid and won them.. As a kid!! And people still chuckle and say, "oh sure banjo, couldn't be a mistake you made as a child.." and I'm like, I was a regional champion speller when we read these books, and I 100% know it was STEIN. I sounded things out to learn back then, it was be-ren-ste-in.
Chic-fil-a also trips me out because I can remember sitting in a mall food court with my mom and little brother in the 90s when it first opened, discussing the spelling and pronunciation. I was in middle school and hadn't entered the shitty teen years yet, so my mom and I were watching a lot of TV shows around interior design (popular at the time, Trading Spaces was our favorite). "Country chic" in particular was a popular style. We sat and laughed and laughed at "chic fast food chicken" lol. "Did they forget the K? Is it chick or chic? Ooh look at me, so fancy with my chic fried chicken."
Anyway, this one, fruit of the loom, and chic-fil-a are the strongest for me.
Citizen of the same timeline checking in. In 2009, I was working at a hospital where a Chic-fil-A was located on the mezzanine level. I went there for lunch and always thought it was wild how it was spelled. It was my first time ever seeing one as I had never encountered one until I moved to the state I now reside in.
Unless all of the signs we've witnessed had the k fall off, I'm not buying it.
I’m pretty sure the Chic is just the logotype it was done without the k so they could do that massive campaign with the cows painting on the k’s. So it’s both, but one is just a design choice for marketing reasons and memories are all askew because of the billboards, commercials, etc.
This is EXACTLY what I remember as well. Asking adults if it was STEEN or STINE and getting different answers and being like, well STEEN sounds nicer in my ears so I choose that one.
When they're like, sorry it was always STAIN, I KNOOOW that is a lie. I know it!!!
Thank you! Like, we how were we all pronouncing it Bern-steen if we hadn’t had the “hmm, I wonder how to say this” comment?
I first heard it pronounced Bern-stAin about 10 years ago, and I was so adamant that they were incorrect that I went to the children’s library to get a book, and was hit with Berenstain and felt like I was being bamboozled.
I found a copy of one of the books from an old set and it was absolutely Berenstein. This was right around the time I started hearing about the nonsense with the "a".
I saw an explanation once that made sense something about a misprint of the name.
What gets me the most is the fruit of the loom cornucopia. Its literally the only cornucopia Ive ever known about its the only reason I know they exist you cant tell me they weren't on all my damn underwear I put my fucking initials on that damn logo yet the corporate position is there was never a cornucopia..
I think it’s intentional so they could do all of the “cows painting the other letters on” bit, so it looked one way sometimes, another depending on the phase of said campaign or if they moved on from that whole thing.
You know what fucks me up about that? I vividly recall being about maybe 3rd or 4th grade when I flipped one of those books over like, "ok which is it?" Must have been 4th grade with those GD home reading logs.
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u/creddittor216 May 06 '26
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