Clearly words are sounds; no, clearly words are letters.

       A morning headline held a name I was stunned by:  ABE.  Seems he was the leader of a country.  Wait a minute, Abe was a president of our country, but that doesn't mean you "first name" him in newsprint.

       Writer Susan Sontag told of when she first went to Berkeley.  She'd been a bright and voracious reader from an early age but couldn't find anyone to talk with about her reading.

       Now, on her first day at UC, she mentioned the author of a book to a fellow student who said, "'Proost,' not 'Prowst.'" And instantly she knew she was in the right place.  She'd never heard anyone say Marcel Proust's name before.

       In my reverse experience,  I'd heard [AH-bay] but not seen it in print and had no idea how it looked.