Pronouncing Silent Letters, Invisible Rs and Sometimes whY

 Have you ever heard a silent letter scream?* 

OK, this may seem weird... but I've been pronouncing silent letters for a few years now. I'm not sure why I started doing it... maybe I'm just a waste not want not kind of person, and all those letters going to waste was just too much for me. Maybe I just like playing with people's minds, or perhaps it's just a social experiment I'm conducting. For whatever reason, its actually been quite rewarding to give a voice to these usually unspoken communicative symbols that have been trapped withing their respective word prison cells for centuries... performing their silent vigil, with little notice, and no thanks. 

Besides, it's English,** and rules are made to be broken anyway, Right?

Speaking of broken literary rules... What is with that invisible R? You know, the one that isn't really there, but some people, (who should know better) pronounce it anyway in words such as, waRsh, WaRshington, IdeaR and sherbeRt. I've never understood why it is used in some words and not other similar sounding words such as cash, stash, hash, bash and etc.... Some time ago, my car was pretty dusty, so I wrote, "waRsh me" in the dust on the back window. A couple of women walking dogs strolled by, and I heard one of them say, "Look, it says waRsh me. That's so funny." Someone noticed and understood. I love observant people.

*If a silent letter falls in the forest, but no one is there to hear it fall, does it make a sound? Answer: Sometimes Y.

**Don't even get me started on how French waste letters...