Wow, I can't believe someone besides me has noticed this ever-expanding trend! For years I've been pointing it out to others and am consistently told that it's my imagination, that I'm just hearing it wrong.

I first noticed people "Germanizing" words containing the "str" letter combination in the mid-Eighties and it has become more and more common as time passes.

And like other posters on this thread I also first noticed that originally it was only black people saying "shtrong," "shtreet," "shtrange," etc., and then saw it quickly spread to young white kids emulating this silly affectation.

I've even heard people giving the Teutonic treatment to words that don't really qualify (as in no "str"), like "reshtaurant" and "hishtory."

And as pointed out above, even newscasters, announcers, voice artists and others who speak for a living are butchering the "str" words (Jimmy Kimmel is a blatant example).

Apparently all we can do is hope people come to their senses eventually and once again reserve the "shtr" sound for words that can actually have that sound. Streudel, anyone?