>WUSS'ter, first syllable rhymes with... well, "wuss". Second syllable
>often rendered "tah" in the local dialect, but not always.

The people born and raised in Worcester and who never learned how to pronounce certain letters call the city WIS-ta, the first part sort of rhyming with piss. They tend to drop their "r"s differently than people from Boston; it's a slightly different accent. No, not all of the people in Massachusetts drop their "r"s, so when I tell you I'm from near Worcester, I say WUS-ter. There's also a place in Ohio? called Wooster, but I think that is also pronounced the same as Worcester. Not completely sure about that though.

Elaine