Do what you want. You're still wrong. I'd argue that the pretentious ones are the ones who pronounce the `t' in ``often'', trying to prove to us that they can spell, to paraphrase the article quoted above. (``Sham-refined'' is a wonderful term that I keep trying to work into everyday conversation. Hasn't happened yet, though.) Interestingly, Random House's ``Word Maven'' currently seems to take almost no position on the pronunciation of ``often'' these days, other than to say it's less bad than my reference claims, but he does at least imply that it's an error. (``Nor is this an error as egregious as the infamous mispronunciation of nuclear,'' from the link above.) Also, the fact that no dictionary suggested AWF-tin as an acceptable pronunciation until the 1970s doesn't bode well for your claim, but, rather, to dictionaries' increasing appeasement of the pseudo-literate.