Fascinating. As a Long Islander living in New England, I find this one moderately easy after the first few tries - with mixed results on the ones in the comments. The sheikh one has always gotten me.
Also, for really hard ones I find it difficult to think, or sometimes even read, the relevant phrase.
I wonder how much variation there is in whether people hear words when they read them - when I was learning Mandarin my teachers said they don’t (which makes sense, it’d be unnecessary and not even useful). I think I do so more than many, which may be why I remember and can pronounce fictional names I read in fantasy or sci-fi better than most of my friends.
