The crunchy, bite-sized carb pillows make excellent additions to soups and salads and can be used in place of breadcrumbs in just about any recipe. But as versatile as they may be, picking up just any box won’t do. The addition of scary chemicals, nutrient-stripped grains and waist-widening hydrogenated oils has made, noshing on many conventional varieties dangerous for your waistline and overall health. That’s why we thought you’d need a little help choosing healthy crackers.
Saltine crackers aren’t exactly known for their health benefits, but if that’s what you’re craving, this is the box you to grab. Conventional saltines are filled with waist-widening soybean oil and heart-harming partially hydrogenated oil — not a fit for any healthy eating plan.
Whether your goal is to lose weight or eat a more wholesome diet, stick to the Eat This, Not That!-vetted options below. They all taste delicious and are jam-packed with superfoods and some of the best ingredients for total health. Happy noshing, cracker lovers!
Mary’s Gone Crackers Super Seed Crackers, 13 crackers
| Calories | 160 |
| Fat | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 200 mg |
| Carbs | 19 g |
| Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 0 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
What if we told you eating these crackers could ward off metabolism-slowing inflammation, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis? If you hadn’t scanned the nutrition panel first, you might fight it hard to believe. But thanks to the addition of whole grain brown rice, quinoa, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax and seaweed, each serving of these low-cal healthy crackers provides 450 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids, a nutrient that provides all of the health-boosting benefits mentioned. Plus, they have a just-salty-enough flavor and crunchy texture that’s sure to please.
Aqua Garden Noida Extension
Blue Diamond Pecan Nut-Thins Nut & Rice Crackers, 16 crackers
Aqua Garden Militari Residence
| Calories | 130 |
| Fat | 3.5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Sodium | 130 mg |
| Carbs | 23 g |
| Fiber | < 1 g |
| Sugar | 0 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
These nutty, gluten-free crackers are clean as a whistle. They’re made of rice flour, pecan meal, potato starch, salt and little else. We love the large 16-cracker serving size that allows you to go back for a second (or third!) handful without fear of breaking the calorie bank. If you’re looking to amp up the fiber and protein count, pair them with a quarter-cup of hummus. The creamy-crunchy combo provides over 3 grams of fiber and 5 grams of satiating protein.
Simply Balanced Multigrain with Quinoa & Flax Pita Crackers, 10 crackers
Digifish Aqua Garden Crackers Coupons
| Calories | 120 |
| Fat | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Sodium | 170 mg |
| Carbs | 18 g |
| Fiber | 2 g |
| Sugar | 1 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
Fans of these healthy crackers describe them as crunchy with a perfect texture and taste — a snack review can’t get much better than that. Simply Balanced, Target’s in-house organic brand, uses a blend superfoods like millet (a magnesium-filled grain), flax, quinoa and whole-wheat flour to create these fiber- and protein-filled crackers.
Doctor in the Kitchen Flackers Flax Seed Crackers Cinnamon & Currants, 6 crackers
| Calories | 120 |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0.5 g |
| Sodium | 5 mg |
| Carbs | 12 g |
| Fiber | 6 g |
| Sugar | 6g |
| Protein | 4 g |
Most crackers would be described as savory, which is why these sweet snacks caught our eye. Alison Levitt M.D., the holistic medical doctor behind this unique treat, uses organic flax seeds, Zante currant, cinnamon, apple cider vinegar and monk fruit extract to create this fiber-packed health food. We love the unique combination of ingredients not typically found in crackers — or anything else found in a box, for that matter. Top them with a small slice of brie and a sliver of pear for a perfect happy hour finger food.
Luke’s Organic Bean & Seed Multigrain and Seed Crackers, 12 crackers
| Calories | 140 |
| Fat | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0.5 g |
| Sodium | 85 mg |
| Carbs | 19 g |
| Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 0 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
Go ahead, grab a handful! These healthy crackers are filled with good-for-you whole food ingredients like black beans, sesame seeds, quinoa and amaranth flour. Luke also turns to organic potato starch to bolster this cracker’s fiber content, ensuring they will keep you satiated for hours.
Annie’s Organic Saltine Classic Crackers, 7 crackers
| Calories | 70 |
| Fat | 2.5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Sodium | 100 mg |
| Carbs | 10 g |
| Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 0 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
Saltine crackers aren’t exactly known for their health benefits, but if that’s what you’re craving, this is the box you to grab. Conventional saltines are filled with waist-widening soybean oil and heart-harming partially hydrogenated oil — not a fit for any healthy eating plan. Annie’s, however, relies on organic expeller-pressed sunflower oil to create its light, flaky snack. “Expeller-pressed” means no chemicals were used to remove the oil from its source, so it’s the best bet for your health.
34 Degrees Cracked Pepper Crisps, 9 crackers
| Calories | 50 |
| Fat | 0 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Sodium | 170 mg |
| Carbs | 11 g |
| Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 0 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
We’re not sure how they packed such a strong peppery flavor into such a thin, flaky cracker, but boy, are we glad they did. These light-as-a-feather healthy crackers are extremely low-cal, which makes them a safe option for those who struggle with portion control. Even if you went back for seconds and thirds, you’d only be at the 150-calorie mark.
Look and feel great this summer with healthy recipes and tips from Eat This, Not That! Magazine.
| Book talkJoin LibraryThing to post. This topic is currently marked as 'dormant'—the last message is more than 90 days old. You can revive it by posting a reply. I often come across words and phrases that don't exist here in Australia. Please help. What exactly is a Mr Coffee ( I know it makes coffee, but how?) What is a furbaby? Wingtips? Corddovan loafers? (Exactly - of course they're shoes.) Leisure suit. (Is it like a track suit?) Many thanks. What are the ingredients of grapenuts? Mr Coffe is an automatic coffee maker - you put in the coffe grounds and the water and it boils the water and seeps it or whatever. Or something like that (I don't actually drink coffee). A furbaby is a furry pet. I've mostly seen it in reference to cats, but then, I mostly talk to people who have cats. The rest of it...I don't know either. Edit: 'Grape-Nuts is a low fat cereal made from natural whole grain wheat and barley.' I don't feel like getting the box and typing in all the ingredients, sorry. No grapes were harmed in the making of this cereal. >1 pamelad: Leisure suit. (Is it like a track suit?) Hideous casual suits from the 70s (often light coloured). NOT like a track suit. I think they were called leisure suits because they were less formal looking than a regular suit. http://www.skooldays.com/categories/fashion/fa1561.htm >2 pamelad: I think Grape Nuts are a kind of fiber cereal in a pellet-type format. edited to close tag and add link A Mr. Coffee is an electric drip coffee maker. 'furbaby' is just a cute term for a pet. I can't describe shoes worth a darn. Try a google search. A leisure suit is not a track suit. A sweat suit is a track suit. A leisure suit (normally a polyester leisure suit) is a type of men's suit, popular in the 70s. wikipedia has a fine article on them. I have no idea what grapenuts are made of (neither grapes nor nuts). They are a crunchy breakfast cereal which opinion is sharply divided on. I am on the 'ick!' side. Like eating gravel in sludge. Leisure suit is a suit designed to be worn without a tie. The jacket is more like a shirt than a regular suit jacket although it matches the pants. Wingtips. Heavy men's shoes often with preforations. Sometimes called Brogues in Europe. When I was a child we called them Insurance man shoes, because the insurance men who came to collect on policies wore them. cordovan loafters. Loafter are a slip on shoe that does not have ties. often called penny loafters. cordovan is a type of spanish leather. Wingtips: Cordovan Loafer: Leisure Suit: Thanks everyone. Particularly appalling selection of leisure suits in that article, sqdancer. They make Morphidae's selection look almost elegant. We have no grapenut equivalents here - seems like a very good thing because they sound like something you'd feed to chickens. >7 Morphidae: that was just painful to see. Glad I was a female in the 70s:-) >8 pamelad: I'll admit I also saw the same photo that Morphidae used, but I went with a more extreme example. Like many other fashions, some versions were better than others :) I think quite a few of the people that eat Grape Nuts will often sprinkle them on other cereals, rather than eating them on their own. (I've never tried them at all, but they might be tolerable with fruit yogurt.) For the record, Mr. Coffee is just a particular brand of coffee makers and accessories, and Grape Nuts are actually pretty good in yogurt. >8 pamelad: Ah, but you have Vegamite, pamelad. I used to try anything once, but Vegamite changed that forever. Makes Grapenuts seem like filet mignon. >7 Morphidae: Morphidae, how did you get in my attic for that photo!? You have to spread the vegemite thinly, jjlong, and the butter thickly. Just a smidgeon of vegemite. Best on fresh, warm, crusty white bread. Grape Nuts are the only cereal that actually gets better when the milk sinks in. I agree, it's good in yogurt. I really dont miss the '70's!!!! A mall is an undercover shopping centre with a big car park - right? A market is just a shop? Here it's a big collection of stalls with people selling fruit, vegetables and other food, often in the open air or only partly closed in. Is a mall always big? Do most cities have other shopping centres apart from malls? (We have a lot of strip shopping centres - shops along the main road). A mall is not underground. It can be on one level or several stories. It usually has a large garage. A market can be a grocery store or like in L.A. we have farmer's markets which are more like your description. A mall is a collection of stores (shops) so it is large but some are very large and some are small. There is the Mall of America which people vacation in. A mall is usually an indoor shopping center, usually big. The Pearl Street Mall in Boulder and the 16th Street mall in Denver are both actually streets that have become pedestrian-only zones, with businesses on either side like a regular street. Neither is under cover, but the 16th street mall has an indoor mall called the Tabor Center on it. It also has free shuttles that run the length of it. A strip mall is probably what you refer to as a strip shopping centre. Until recently, Portland had a 'bus mall,' two streets downtown with a lot of bus stops along them and on which cars were only allowed in the left lane. Soon the light rail train will be going down these streets instead of buses. Here a market describes both a grocery store and a market like what you describe. A Farmer's Market is an outdoor market with lots of booths where fresh fruits & vegetables are sold. In Portland, 'Saturday Market' is held on Saturdays and Sundays near the Skidmore fountain--outdoors with tents & booths--mainly things people have made themselves. I used to be on the 'ick' side of the GrapeNuts debate, but within the past few weeks they've come out with GrapeNuts Trail Mix Crunch (or at least I've only seen it in the past few weeks), which has raisins and almonds and some other bits in it, and it's actually quite good. You always want a smaller bowl than you think you do, though. Thank you Gautherbelle. You drive to the mall and pop into the market to buy the grapenuts, which are best with yoghurt. No worries. A holiday in a mall! I hate shopping. I confess to going to the store (market) because I have to eat. But I tend to avoid malls as much as possible. I haven't eaten grapenuts since I was a child. I like my yogurt with blueberries on the bottom. See link below for Mall of America. Even some airports have malls. http://www.mallofamerica.com/ I really enjoy this translation. I'm about to read an Australian novel called Dirt Music maybe you'll help me? I'd be happy to Gautherbelle. Have been meaning to read it for a long time. Had a look at the Mall of America site - I am amazed (and as a shopping-hater, appalled). An undercover amusement park! It must be something to do with the weather? Too cold to hang around outside in winter in that part of the US? Thanks Nichtglied - so a mall is just another name for a collection of shops. We also have farmers' markets - they sell fresh food that is produced locally as opposed to other markets which have food that might come from another state. My husband and I are Aussies. We had a funny experience while in California in 1997: We were in Waldenbooks and I had picked out a novel to read for the flight home. When I went to pay for it the cashier recognised our accents and asked which part of Australia we were from and said how she hoped to visit our country one day. While chatting about travel, she suddenly asked 'What sort of tax do you have in Australia?' We thought this was an odd question, but assumed maybe she was an economics student or something...so my husband said 'No, we don't have the same sales tax system that you have in California'. She looked puzzled and pointed to the book I'd bought and replied 'But you understand English tax'? My husband then politely explained that Australia and England have different tax systems too, that Australia has quite high income tax compared to other countries. We were becoming really confused by this point. Then she opened up the book I'd bought and pointed randomly to a paragraph and said 'Australia has the same TEXT as America....you read in English!' All along, she'd been saying TEXT not TAX! She was ever so impressed that Australians could read English. '...two countries, divided by a common language....' Do you really have cream in your coffee? Or is cream just a general-purpose word for milk artificial coffee-creamer etc? I think cream is an all-purpose word, although some people do put actual cream in their coffee. My father used to travel to Australia (from the U.S.) frequently on business. He had one client he called upon regularly, and enjoyed chatting up his secretary. She was a rather busy woman and, watching her rush around one day, he said to her, 'Boy, you really shake your fanny for your boss.' Icy silence. Here in the U.S., 'fanny' is your bum. In Australia, um, a part of the anatomy close to the bum. It depends on whether you're ordering or just talking about coffee in general terms. If you're just talking general terms, then someone might say cream and mean any of those. If you're ordering a coffee, then cream is actually cream, often half-and-half (about 12% milk fat) or whole cream (30% milk fat?),the artificial stuff is called creamer, non-dairy creamer or whitener and if you want milk then you ask for milk (and you often are given a choice between whole, skim, 1% or 2%.) A classic mistake cabegley, that your dad made a million times worse. Brilliant. No woman called Fanny or man called Randy can be taken seriously here. #24 So true, Bob! :P #25-27 How about trying to get a 'white tea' or 'tea with milk' in the US, esp. from hotel room services? I once ordered 'tea with milk' and received a cup of black tea with a slice of lemon. No milk. On the second attempt I got a coffeepot filled with plain hot water, a teabag and a whole glass of milk as a side. But at least it was fresh milk and could be transferred to the teacup. I hate that 'creamer' stuff in the little containers with the peel-off top. Bleh :P </i>Language works both ways. Some Aussie friends once brought me a copy of Let Stalk Strine by Afferbeck Lauder. You've really got to think (and say the words out loud) to understand what's being said. Apparently you need to have grown up eating Vegemite to appreciate it. I was 5 when I came to Australia so I've always found Vegemite and Marmite to be truly awful, no matter how thinly its spread... that stuff is crook! digifish_books: That's just bizarre... admittedly, I'm Canadian and the majority of my day to day experience is in Canada, not the US, but I've travelled enough and I don't ever recall having a problem making people understand the 'milk' part of 'tea with milk'. Well, aside from people occasionally thinking milk and cream are the same thing, but generally, no matter where I go, if I ask for tea with milk, I get tea with milk. A pot of water with a tea bag on the side seems to be par for the course, and I prefer it. You never know how long your tea has been steeped if you can't time it yourself. digifish I live in L.A., you must have been at the same Waldenbooks I was in when the sales clerk told me there was no such writer as Beatrix Potter. >33 gautherbelle: Gautherbelle... no, it was Waldenbooks in San Rafael (Marin County). She probably got a transfer to LA later on :P >32 Anlina: Anlina - the problem seems to occur mainly in hotels. In cafes I can usually at least get a nice milky chai latte :-) In New York City coffee shops (the old kind, not Starbucks and its ilk), a 'regular' coffee has milk in it. If you want black coffee, you have to specify it. pamelad #28: Fanny was quite a common name when I was brought up in Lancashire (UK) and there's some in the family tree. I suppose when learning a foreign language it's the apparently innocent words that cause the 'stunned silence' (#26) when spoken with the wrong emphasis or out of context. I think my favourite Aussie crossed-wires moment involved a reference to 'thongs' - in the UK it's underwear, but in Australia, it's what we Brits call flip-flops! >36 PossMan: I still laugh at the trans-oceanic distress caused over that de rigeur tourist garb known as the 'fanny pack' (US) or 'bum bag' (UK). ;^) DLSmithies - Oddly enough, in the US both the underwear and the flip-flops are called thongs. Makes things interesting... I remember being shocked when I was chatting online with a group of people and one of them said they were going outside for a fag. Took me a minute to remember that they weren't American. only we Canadians could choose a rodent for our national animal: a beaver. Seems to reduce much of the rest of the world to helpless laughter. #40, Nope, not going there. Not atall, atall. (Wanders off, pondering image of Canadians as nice, quiet, mild-mannered accepting people. Then remembers he listens to 'As It Happens' and that Canadian politics has as many lunatics as its American counterpart {proportionate to population}.) #40 & 46: I'll go there, sort of. I stayed at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal & had dinner in the Beaver Room. Grape nuts are the product of an obscure viticulural technique in which young grapes are neutered to prevent the production of stray, unwanted and feral vines. Leisure suit is an oxymoron. Wing tips are the end-sections of wings. Mr Coffee is an alias of Juan Valdez. I trust this clears things up. #13 pamelad You have to spread the vegemite thinly, jjlong, and the butter thickly. Just a smidgeon of vegemite. Best on fresh, warm, crusty white bread. I've always found you have to spread Vegemite thickly or it has no flavour. I agree about the bread. My tolerance of Vegemite might be because I grew up eating Marmite, which is more strongly flavoured than Vegemite. They changed the Marmite recipe recently though - it's runnier now - like thick treacle - and has less flavour. In my move to the US from Canada, the most problematic word was the verb 'table', as in 'to table a report'. To Americans it means 'put aside for now', and to Canadians (and the rest of the world?) it means 'discuss now'--enough to reduce a binational meeting to a scramble for the dictionary! I mostly understood Americanisms, but I quickly discovered that I was using words foreign to them--still do occasionally even after all these years. Americans were very kind, however, as I adjusted to my new home and dialect. I remember that our secretary cured me of 'eh' within a month of my arrival, pinching my cheek and declaring me 'so cute' whenever I used it! :'( (The rule for editors is American spelling when published in the US and British everywhere else. I've wondered how the rule applies to LT, with its US (I assume) owner, and people posting from all over the world. Guess anything goes!) margd pinching my cheek and declaring me 'so cute' whenever I used it How rude! Message 45: 'The rule for editors is American spelling when published in the US and British everywhere else...' Have you found this to be the case in Asia, margd? The great majority of my correspondents in the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea and Japan use American English orthography at all times, as do most from mainland China. I also believe that Japanese books published in English since World War II generally use American English spelling rules. #46. She meant well, and I was much younger. I remember a dinner party where my new friends watched to see if, after cutting meat, I kept my fork in my left hand or passed it to my right hand to eat. (I did both, apparently.) I was amazed at the many little differences between Americans and Canadians! #47 My 'rule' on use of American / British English comes from ~1980s era commission that employed me, which reported to State Dept. and its Canadian counterpart. A more recent (2002, US) text, Technical Editing, regards standards for international use as a desirable, but elusive objective. My recollection is that professional / technical writing is in the British style outside the US, e.g., in Russia, Iran, Africa, and Europe, of course? Except for China, the countries you mention are influenced by the US. Maybe, too, you are discussing other matters? Maybe the differences we observe are due to spheres of influence, topics discussed, etc.? I don't doubt, though, that as effects of colonization and other political influence recede, people learning English will increasingly use the spelling of their trading partners, and certainly America is a huge consumer. For example, even though we were located in the US, we were careful to use British spelling whenever we wrote to the Right Honourable Whomever in Canada! Whenever we visit the States I find it funny when someone identifies us as Canadians because we say 'aboot' instead of 'about'. Personally I always thought I was saying 'about', but apparently not ;-S #48 margd, There are different ways that Americans and Canadians use the silverware? *scratches head*. I did not know that. I have been puzzled by American slang too (and I'm American.lol). So you can be American and not understand other Americans.=) For instance, when I was in Michigan I heard someone say something about wanting a 'pop' and I didn't know what they were referring to and thought, 'huh???' Pop to them was soda to me. When I was living in Germany I found all the English was in British-English. And they eat with the fork in their left hand, too. >50 booklover79: Saying 'soda' or 'pop' will get you odd looks in the South, and identify you as a Yankee... here, it's a 'Coke' (even if you'd like a Dr Pepper or a 7-Up): 'Let's stop and get a coke,' or, often, a 'cold drink' (emphasis on the first syllable - COLdrink.) Sounds weird to me even as I write it. :) I knew I needed a British-American dictionary when many years ago... Back in the dorm of a language school in Israel, a group of us - (all in our early 20's) - guys and gals from several nations were sitting, talking, and laughing. Suddenly, a very prim and proper female student from England came to the door of our dorm room and asked, 'Does anyone have a rubber?' We looked at each other in amazement, wondering why she'd need one. P.S. She was asking for an eraser, not a condom! Ha! I live in Michigan and I say both soda and pop. My sister always makes fun of me for saying soda... A couple of differences between British and American English strike me when I listen to the BBC. Americans prevent people from doing things where the British prevent people doing things. Also, it seems that the English always conjugate collective nouns as plurals (the team are arriving) where Americans would treat them as singulars (the team is arriving.) The latter makes more sense to me, as one is speaking of one team as a unit. In trying to figure out who was correct in this, I consulted a grammar which said that if the focus is on the individuals in the collective one should treat it as a plural and when one is speaking of the group as a whole one would treat it as a singular. It's hard to tell where one should draw that distinction. Something I hear a lot in NPR news reports strikes me simply as sloppy English, but it may be considered correct by some: Someone will say something like 'The shelf of books are....' where I would say 'the shelf of books is...' as the subject of the sentence is shelf, a singular, not books. #51> ArmyAngel1986, eating with the fork in the left hand is a habit of Italians too, as we cut with the right (unless obviously we are lefty), but do not put the knife down to hold the fork with the right. I believe it is a spread European trait, although I do not know if ALL Europeans do it. Aluv: yeah, I noticed it wherever we traveled. Also, I don't think I ever saw Europeans eat anything with their hands. My dad and I went into a Pizza Hut in town (in Germany) and sat down to eat our pizzas (with our hands, of course!) and the people at the table next to us stared at us until we left the restaurant. I mean, they were cutting the pizza and eating it with a fork and knife, and feeding themselves, and not once took their eyes off of us. It wasn't until we left we realized we were the only people eating the pizza with our hands. Somebody from the UK recently used the term girly swot on this board. I give up. Miss goody two-shoes? Or something else? I think the American English grammatical habit that annoys me most is 'X said Tuesday that...'. It's ON Tuesday, ON Tuesday! A swot is someone who studies hard. In some schools it is typically the girls who do this. Hence girly swot. Think Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books and you will have it about right. The British etc method of using knife & fork is eminently sensible--why should one have to put down one piece of silverware in order to switch hands? Any industrial engineer would find it much more efficient! I'm American (but had a Britsh grandmother), and often eat in the British style. and not once took their eyes off of us. (#57) ArmyAngel I think the phrase 'off of us' shows this isn't just a British/USA thing. I would use 'took their eyes off us' and the first time I really came across the inserted 'of' was when I worked overseas and my Scottish co-worker used the construction. I now have a Scottish wife, and live in Inverness, and am a bit more used to it but it still grates. A couple of years or so ago I came across a BBC website. They'd been round Britain recording old people using various dialects and one of them was an old woman from a place near Ramsbottom where I was brought up (in Lancashire, England). It sounded pretty familiar but what was really interesting was that at the end there was a simple linguistic analysis by the academics who had done the study. Both non-standard vocabulary she had used but also non-standard grammar. One example, to give the flavour, is the use of 'at' in a general time phrase such as ' everyone has cold meat at Monday' (so there #59!!). I recognized quite a lot of my own usage but think I failed to recognize often (a) the extent to which my Lancastrian differed from the norm (for 'Standard' English) and (b) that I was conforming to grammatical rules, albeit localised. #57-- Its not just in Europe. You may also be from the northeast, as am I (US, that is). I was in New Orleans eating pizza with a native New Orleanian. I folded my slice lengthwise to eat it as she used a knife & fork. She thought my method hilarious! I don't understand what's so funny about the different ways of eating food, but then...I guess I'm weird, because (like the soda/pop thing) I sometimes eat pizza with my hands and sometimes use a knife and fork. And I sometimes switch my silverware and sometimes don't. I've known for a long time that some of these things were 'standard' in certain places, but it never occurred to me that people would really find the 'nonstandard' way all that strange. Katylit #49, Canadians also speak in a bit more singsong fashion that I could finally 'hear' only after being in the States for years. Apparently I still speak in singsong (per American listeners), but I have picked up some American expressions and pronunciations over the years. (My sister thinks I now pronounce words like 'cake' with Michiganian dispatch, and a Cdn friend was saddened to have me acknowledge his thanks with 'mm-hmm' rather than 'you're welcome' or 'no problem'.) I suspect some of these differences are regional rather than national, and they are probably endangered by individual mobility and globalization of culture. Too bad--they are kind of fun! Edit: another distinguishing feature is that to our deathbeds we pronounce 'been' as 'bean' and not 'ben'! #52 jjlong, I'm not a Yankee or a Southerner though as a child I lived in 'southern' states like Georgia and 'northern' states like NY.=) It can get really interesting trying to figure out where I'm from, as I grew up all over, because sometimes words pop out with a southern acccent and other times with a New England/NY accent. *sigh*lol. #61 Leel, I agree. It's more efficient, especially when you're really hungry, you don't have to take the time to switch to eat.=) #58 Visibleghost Girly swot comes from Down with Skool!. Girly means effeminate and a swot is someone who studies very hard - anathema to Nigel Molesworth, the curse of St Custard's. A very funny book, illustrated by Ronald Searle. http://www.stcustards.free-online.co.uk/intro.htm booklover, I went all through middle and high school in Northern Virginia. I've lived in 10 or 15 other places, and haven't even lived East of the Mississippi since 1968, much less South of the Mason-Dixon line. But if you put me in a room with a person or people who have noticeable Southern accents I start throwing 'y'all' around like crazy. Linkmeister, Hey, where in Northern Va did you live? (I live in Fairfax). I spent a brief month or so in the summer in Rhode Island a few years ago and I left speaking like a native. I tend to pick up accents pretty quick. When I had gone back to school, my roomie's friend thought I was from New England and insisted I had an accent while I kept saying, 'No I'm not, no I don't!'lol. Does a roomie share a room or just a dwelling? Room mate or flat mate? What's American cheese? Leel: Actually, I'm from Louisiana! I go to college less than an hour from New Orleans! As an army brat I grew up all over the south (with a couple overseas stations). Though I'm in VA now for the summer. Poss: I think 'of' is one of those words Americans use without realizing, kind of like 'that' or 'got,' or more recently, 'like' or 'you know' (grrrr). Oh, I have a punctuation question. I was taught when using quotation marks you are supposed to put your punctuation in the quotation (as above). I think I'm also supposed to put the period inside the parenthesis, too. But it drives me crazy! I'm quoting a word, not a comma. I read somewhere that in British writing the punctuation goes outside the quotation marks, parenthesis, etc. Which way do y'all consider correct? Roomie is a room mate, which is like a flat mate--you don't actually have to share a room. American cheese is vile, awful stuff better left undiscussed. Sort of like plastic, only chewable. American cheese is yellow tasteless paste. When I lived in Nashville, my neighbor from New Jersey asked me if I had any soda, so I gave her the Arm & Hammer. She thought I was crazy she wanted what we called a soft drink. I've noticed that we say in 'the' hospital and the English simply say in hospital. If you ask for a 'soda' in Australia you'll probably get a glass of soda water (water with gas). Champagne or sparkling wine is known as 'bubbly'. A 'soft drink' here is any type of fizzy non-alcoholic beverage. And then there's a 'cool drink', which includes flat and fizzy non-alcoholic drinks such as fruit-flavoured cordial or other syrup concentrate mixed with water. Cordial is very popular among parents as a cheap way of filling young children up on sugar. Of course, I soon found out that in the US 'cordial' means something else entirely.... a small fortified alcoholic drink, or is it a type of spirit?! Either way its definitely not for the littlies :P What is 'jack cheese'? Why is it 'write me' instead of 'write to me'? #60 Thanks. I figured it wasn't a bad handle but couldn't nail it down specifically. # 70 Pamelad, Thanks for the swot word definition. American cheese is used on cheeseburgers or grilled cheese sandwiches, is yellow and comes in slices usually individually wrapped. It has no cheese in it, well, I've seen some brands that claim-5% real cheese- yuckity, yuck yuck. I'm scared to look at the ingredient label for Velveeta cheese but that stuff can't be cheese either. #53 LOL--I think Canadians use 'elastics' as opposed to 'rubber bands'. #73--Isn't that funny that Americans 'go to THE hospital', but they go to court, go to jail. go to prison, etc. without the article 'the'. Another expression they don't use (I think?) is 'went missing'. Booklover, I lived in Annandale, in Tall Oaks, the subdivision behind the BradLick Shopping Center. I went to Poe Intermediate and Jefferson HS (before it was a magnet school). I rode my 50cc Harley-nameplated Italian-manufactured motorbike out Braddock Road to George Mason College the summer between junior and senior years for a couple of college classes. The school was four buildings and a massive construction site at the time. #76--'Went missing' has arrived in the US in the last few years. #71--As someone deeply involved in writing a dissertation, your punctuation is decided by what manual you follow. Even the NYTimes has its own 'proper' manual. And American cheese, altho usually found presliced, also comes in long rectangles which can be sliced to order. This doesn't make it any tastier, however. 74 Digfish: 'Jack cheese' is short for Monterey Jack cheese. Wikipedia below ... The Wikipedia entry for 'American cheese' includes a photo of the 'darker variety' (usually called 'yellow' though I always considered it 'orange' - the other is called 'white' though always seemed yellow-ish to me). The Wiki on Jack: Monterey Jack is a type of semi-hard cheese using cows milk. It is commonly sold by itself, or mixed with Colby cheese to make a marbled cheese known as Colby-Jack (or Co-Jack). In its earliest form, Monterey Jack was made by the Franciscan monks of Monterey, California, during the 1800s. A shrewd Californian business man by the name of David Jacks began to first mass market the cheese. He produced a mild, white cheese, which came to be known at first as 'Jack's Cheese', and eventually 'Monterey Jack'. An aged version of this cheese, known as Dry Jack, can be grated and used much like Parmesan cheese. Dry Jack was originally developed during WWII by Peter Vella as the Italian styled cheeses became increasing difficult to obtain due to the embargo imposed on Italy during the war. Another version called Pepper jack mixes hot peppers with Monterey Jack for a zesty flavor. Pepper jack is often used as an alternative cheese in dishes such as quesadillas, but can be eaten with bread or crackers as a snack. A common misspelling is 'Monterrey Jack', presumably in confusion with the Mexican city of Monterrey. #74 -- Jack cheese is typically a mild white cheese. It's similar to Colby and is kind of like a mild gouda. It's also commonly referred to as Monterrey Jack cheese. I now have a light-weight, highly portable and amusing Anglo-American dictionary to hand at all times. He's called Frank. :D *I could have done without the half-hour explanation with diagrams as to 'lo-los' after I expressed an interest in them. But it was sweet, if utterly baffling as a non-driver. Grape nuts pudding is swell. There's a Jamaican restaurant in New York that serves a great grape nuts ice cream! They're kind of tough to eat 'raw' as a cereal; my cousin taught me the trick of nuking the cereal-and-milk first fora minute or gtwo to soften the mixture into a faux pudding' before eating. #75--re Velveeta--I've heard that 'they' gather up all the cheese at the grocery stores (doesn't matter what kind) that is about to expire, melt it down, and repackage it. There's your Velveeta. When my ex-husband and I were first married we were both in school and poor. I'd always been poor so it wasn't such a big deal and I had coping skills. He came from an upper middle class background and had a hard time coping. He'd pay bills as soon as they came without regard to whether we could afford to or not. I had to teach him about second notices. He also tried to economize with food. Chicken instead of steak, okay. Garlic salt instead of garlic, okay. Lots of rice and potatos, okay. But velveeta instead of cheese -- marital crisis. He had to choose his wife or velveeta. He chose me. Twelve years later when we divorced I sent him a large velveeta gift wrapped. Sometimes just across the Niagara River can seem light years away between Canada and the US. Visiting Buffalo, NY once, I managed to get quite lost, so went to a hardware store to ask if they sold maps. Sure, the clerk said, and led me to a section full of mops and pails. No, no, MAPS, I said and she gestured to the mops as though I had slipped a cog. I finally had to spell it and she said 'Ohhhh, meeaps!' #53, Canadians wear rubbers (short for rubber boots) on their feet when it rains (aka wellies). In the southern United States, a Yankee is someone who lives in the north; in the north, a Yankee is someone who lives in New England; in New England, a Yankee is someone who comes is descended from colonial Protestants. With regard to soda and pop, in the Boston area the term frquently is 'tonic'. In the south some people who use the word 'coke' as a generic term for soft drinks. Also, in Boston, a milkshake is called a frappe (silent e). It is made with milk, ice cream and syrup. A Boston milkshake excludes the ice cream. I have heard that in Rhode Island a milkshake is called a cabinet. I believe cabinets contain coffee syrup, no? My mom was born and raised near Boston, and had never heard of the term 'tonic'; when I asked her about it, she said she would assume a person was talking about tonic water. Talk the Talk: the slang of 65 by Luc Reid is kind of interesting, though the subcultures selected are some pretty minor ones--like Americans in Antarctica, Modern Railroaders and Railfans, Skateboarders, etc. Some words/expressions do seem 'American,' like 'Area 51', but others like 'Exogamy' (sex between humans and extraterrestrials) don't really seem American. This is a fascinating discussion. Many of these words aren't 'American' at all - they're region-specific, and people from other regions often don't know what they mean any more than people from other countries. (I know, because I'm from Michigan and many of the non-Midwestern terms mentioned are completely foreign to me :) I've notice while watching the BBC that Brits say Maths and we say Math. That stuff in pressurized cans that one squirts on crackers is called cheese also but I've got my doubts. Good Lord! We've got cheese in bottles, cheese in cans, cheese in balls, cheese in..... if this cheese fixation doesn't leave my brain soon I'm gonna have to join the cheese group. Back to words, it took me awhile to figure out what crisps were. And 'chips'. Not to mention this use of English, ' I'll come round in the morning and knock you up.' The one word that keeps getting me into double-entendre hot water is 'fag'. To me, a fag is a lovely stick of tobacco the government has decided I shouldn't have. To my American friends, having a 'drag on a fag' doesn't have the same meaning, nor does 'I'm gasping for a fag' nor 'I'm just nipping out for a quick fag'. Let alone 'I'm completely out of fags' and many many more I don't even notice now. The one phrase he doesn't get is 'don't be daft', which I apparently use a lot. And his attempt at a cockney accent - oh good grief. Why can't Americans 'do' Londoners? (There's an obvious pun there: please ignore it). And yeah, why have the English got plural maths? Does this mean I'm not so stupid at math and had to work twice as hard at maths, unfairly? And why don't you use a 'u' in flavor, favor, labor, neighbor, and so on like a Sesame Street mnemonic. Why have we got the French-ish 'u' and you don't (another Americanism: we'd say 'you haven't'. Ditto 'gotten' - that can make most middle-Englanders apoplectic, just a tip). I have to say the Texan accent is so lovely and truly charming; when it's not being used by George W Bush, that is. 'Can I bum a fag'. I think we have maths because mathematics is a plural noun (according to the OED). Although it is a special case as it takes singular verb forms. I blame the Greeks. As for 'you don't' being an Americanism. Well it is used nearly all the time in casual speech if not in formal writing. Usually in a sneering way - 'I've got a new bike and you don't' sounds a tad more goading than 'I've got a new bike and you haven't'. #91 VisibleGhost A cracker is a firework, so you don't put cheese on it. You put cheese on a dry biscuit. Don't forget the Aluminium / Aluminum argument either. Featured in one of Issac Asimov's mystery stories. I found it in The Armchair Detective. I find a lot of americanism's creeping into my speach, mostly because I read a lot of american works, my OtherHalf who has a pedantic knowledge of 'proper' grammer finds it very annoying. What's branch water? You mix it with spirits? I was born and raised in the South and no self respecting cook would make a dry biscuit. A biscuit is a thick fluffy piece of bread made with flour milk and shortening. It is slathered in butter and jelly/jam/applebutter and most often served at breakfast. When I lived in Nashville there was a restaurant that specialized in biscuit sandwiches (bacon, ham, sausage or butter and jelly). I believe what you call a biscuit we call a cookie. This is a great discussion! My youngest brother is constantly referring to 'movies', and I'm such a pedant, I can't stand it! *clip round the ear* it's FILMS, you little ragamuffin! Good grief, are you going to start talking about sidewalks and garbage and gas stations as well?! >97 gautherbelle: Gautherbelle....of course, by 'jelly' I assume you mean sweet seedless jam (conserve), not the gelatin-based dessert that you set in a jelly mould ;P If you guys think you are enjoying this discussion, you can't imagine how much fun I am having!!! It is wonderful to listen (metaphorically of course) to all your different accents and ways of speaking. Having learnt English in Britain, and in spite of over twenty years in the US, I still tend to pronounce and write many words like the Brits do (e.g. behaviour), much to my children's amusement. It is a hard habit to break, I tell you... American drivers 'merge', but Canadians (and Brits?) 'squeeze' left/right. Also tractor-trailers are 'transports' in Canada, and 'trucks' in the US? I discovered this one day when I exclaimed to my American husband, who was driving at the time, 'Look out for that transport!!!' 'Wha-at?' he asked. Me: 'That big, bloody truck that nearly ran us over!!!' Edit: Also, I don't think 'bloody' is used much in the US? I think it's derived from an Elizabethan-era oath 'God's blood'? #71 In the US, most punctuation goes inside the quotation marks, as you did above; I believe this is different in Britain. With parentheses, it depends on the sense of the sentence. (That is, if the entire sentence is inside the parentheses, the period is also.) But, if there is a parenthetical remark within a sentence (for example, as here), the punctuation follows the sense of the parenthetical phrase and the period stays outside the parentheses (like this). vpfluke (#86): Regarding your definition of Yankee: 'In the southern United States, a Yankee is someone who lives in the north; in the north, a Yankee is someone who lives in New England; in New England, a Yankee is someone who comes is descended from colonial Protestants.' I think that last bit is wrong ... I thought for people living in New England, 'Yankee' refers to a resident of the 'Evil Empire!' 101 -- this reminds me of an audiobook I listened to recently, Silverfin (touchstone not working) byCharlie Higson. It wa read by a Brit, but some of the characters were American. The reader did a great job with the accent, but was less successful with the pronunciation. An example: LAB-ra-tory (US) vs. la-BOR-a-tory. It just sounded very weird to hear US action with UK emphasis! >105 verbafacio: Speaking of pronunciation, I was flummoxed when I heard Americans referring to 'clicks' and it took me a while to suss that they meant 'cliques' (which in the UK we'd pronounce 'cleeks' like the French). My son-in-law is from Minnesota, and I hear a lot of 'Canadian' pronunciations in his speech. I think that's probably true of most north-central states that border Canada. Funny thing: He spent part of his childhood in Texas, and sometimes I hear 'Uff Da, y'all!' *Note: 'Uff Da' seems to be a Scandinavian exclamation good for miscellaneous use. Yeah, Uff Da is sort of an 'Oh Boy!' RE # 104 When we moved to Massachusetts in 1960, I was high schooler and somewhat interested in politics. The local TV politcal analysts of that day had divided the state (technically, a commonwealth) into four community types: Boston, all the other cities, urban towns, and rural towns. When the votes came in, the machine ballots were counted first, and these were mostly from the first three community types. But the paper ballots took some time to count, and they mostly were used in 'Yankee' towns. I remember Republican John Volpe thanking his supporters for electing him governor, despite the fact that he was 20,000 votes behind in the count around 11 PM or so. He was rightly expecting that all the Yankee towns would give him the final boost into a positive tally, but neither he nor his supporters wanted to wait all night long to find out. This is the same election where Jack Kennedy was elected president (and carried Mass by a substantial margin) and Leverett Saltonstall was re-elected senator. Saltonstall was certainly from an old Yankee family, but took care of everyone in the state in the political sense. I thought at the time that Kennedy would sweep lots of Democrats into office. By the way some of these Yankee towns were still using paper ballots in the 2000 election. (I didn't check in 2004). We lived in the town of Mattapoisett which had what are know as long ballots, which meant that you voted for every conceivable office. My favorite elected position in that town was the Herring Weir Inspector. He gave permits for fishing when the fish ran in the spring and set the daily limit of fish allowed to be caught. Dear Seajack, (#87) You're right, I think cabinets have coffee syrup. Years ago I remember seeing a statistic that Rhode Island was the only state where coffee ice cream ever outsold chocolate. Of course, Rhode Island (and adjoining areas of Massachusetts) long had the ice cream parlors which sold many types of ice cream (e.g the New port Creamery), long before Ben & Jerry's. I first encountered the term tonic on a trip to Boston in the fall of 1960, and remember seeing a handwritten sign for frappes and tonic. Perhaps, frappes was only used in Boston itself, it was not used down in the New Bedford / Buzzards Bay area where we lived. #100... Here in the US, there's a difference between jelly and jam. Jelly is usually seedless (although some brands of jelly use seeds), and jam usually has seeds, pulp, and whatnot. The gelatin based dessert is what we call Jell-O (brand name) or gelatin (generic). Although most people just call it Jell-O. #71 ArmyAngel1986, Hey, Hey fellow army brat!!=) I was one too so I've lived all over the U.S. and overseas twice. #77 Linkmeister, How long has it been since you been back? You'd be amazed at what Mason looks like now! Not to mention the area around Braddock Road. #102 margd, Those commercial tractor-trailers I've always called a 'semi' and not trucks. Not sure where I picked that up. And you're right, I've never heard anyone but Brits use the word bloody. I used to work with a man from the UK and he always used the word 'bloody hell' and 'bollocks' a lot.haha. I always found it funny. When I moved from NYC to Massachusetts, I learned about frappes the hard way. Frappes in NY were ice cream sundaes; imagine my surprise when I got a milk shake! Another thing I find an interesting cross-cultural phenomenon is given names. You rarely meet an American named Graham, Nigel, Clive or Trevor, but these seem fairly common in the UK. Ditto Saskia & Portia. (Although there is Portia de Rossi.) Littlegeek: is Portia pronounced Porsche (the car)? Because I knew I girl in middle school named that... #113 I had the same experience, with a slight difference, when visiting Boston from NYC, many years ago. At the time, in NYC you could get something called a 'milk shake' that had ice cream and milk and some syrup; you could also get an 'ice cream soda' which basically was a milk shake plus fizzy soda. I ordered a 'milk shake' in Boston and got, well, shook-up milk. The 'frappe,' as I recall was what we in NYC called a 'milk shake,' not an 'ice cream soda' or an 'ice cream sundae' (which, as far as I know, was never considered a frappe since it's not a drink). --> 144 I guess it depends where you live. I know two Trevors, both American. One lives in Maryland; the other in North Carolina. By the way, how do you pronounce Nigel? Speaking of names. When my daughter was in 1st grade we went to the school for some program or other. In my daughter's class all the kids' names were lised on a long sheet of paper on the wall. I had no problem telling the white kids from the black kids. The white kids had names like Sarah, Ann, Patricia, Jack, Peter etc. The black kids were Azize (mine), Rolondo, Antwoine, Kiesha, Chante oh and Fautless. 109 Fluke ... I've spent a lot of time in Cape/Islands area where they use 'frappe' for milkshake. 114 Geekster ... I am struck by the difference in names when reading British books, too, although I have run across Graham here occasionally. 117 Squeaks ... I would prounounce 'Nigel' (with my American accent) as NYE-jul. Pamelad, here are a couple of Australianisms that have thrown me ... I was listening to A J Rochester read her story of losing 12 dress sizes. She mentioned that she kept having cravings for fish n chips; however, she referred to the fish as 'sav' (or 'sab'), which meant absolutely nothing to me at all. What kind of fish is that? Also, it took me a few times to realize in Lydia Laube's travel lit adsventures that 'chooks' were chickens! Gautherbelle - My mom teaches first grade and for a long time, it was the same way. Until this year, when there are a bunch of white kids with 'black' sounding names. It was kind of an interesting switch. The most memorable names were Americaa (in my mom's class, and the extra 'a' is not a typo) and Starlisha, in a middle school summer class I was an aide in one year. Portia basically equals Porsche in American pronunciation. Generally, black people are much more imaginative in names. My Little Sister is bi-racial, and her white mom was careful to try to give her kids names that would be acceptable in either community. She did fine with Tynesha, (my little), but not so well with Tyler & Josh. Tyler perfers to go by Darnell, his middle name, because he tends to hang out more with black kids, and Tyne tends to go by Tye, because she mostly hangs out with whites. So much for their mom's good intentions! > 114 Colin is another one of those names which is more common in the Commonwealth than in the US. The only American Colin I have heard of is Colin Powell - and his name is pronounced funny. I seem to remember in an interview somewhere that originally he pronounced Colin in the Commonwealth fashion (after all his parents were immigrants from Jamaica) but somewhere along the line he adopted a different pronunciation. For those Americans reading Colin is pronounced with a short o as in cold. Sounds like the surname of Jackie Collins (but without the S of course). 117> Nigel. 'nai ʤʌl (where ʌ is a short u as in run). Two syllables. The ʤ is a soft g as in gee. Do you have many Siobhans in the US? Siobhans, no. I have knows several Colins, and even a Graham & a Trevor, but still very rare. -->122 andyl: Siobhan. That name makes me crazy. When I see it written, I have to think for a moment how to pronounce it. Then, when I hear it, I have to reflect again to think how it's spelled! :-) I have that with Niamh too, and Sinead, to a lesser extent. Watching the BBC two British names I ran across that I'd never heard here were Petal (which I like) and Perdita (not so much). Also the writer Niall Fergerson have never seen it (Neal) spelled this way. On Sundays in the Fall when all the football games are on, my daughter and I use to make a list of the really odd names of black football players. One I thought odd but apt was Peerless Price. Booklover @ 112, I haven't been back in NoVa at all since I left in 1968. I was in DC for a few days in 1984, but that's as close as I've come. I did manage to get a good glimpse of the GMU campus during last year's NCAA tournament...;) Gautherbelle (#118) Going along with the school theme my wife is a primary teacher in UK and reckons that names like 'Liam' belong to boys who spell trouble (well she puts it stronger than that). #122 andyl, I have met only one Siobhan in the U.S. and yes she was American. It's not a common name here. #127 Linkmeister, Oh yeah, Northern VA has changed quite a lot since you've seen it last. #116 Well, when I grew up in Brooklyn (don't ask!) a frappe was a sundae! #122--Yes, I know a Siobhan. A 15 year old. #112 I grew up using semi or 18-wheeler for tractor trailer trucks. Divided highways with entrance and exit ramps were freeways or interstates. Cars had a hood, trunk and a windshield not a bonnet, boot and a windscreen. They were parked in parking lots not car parks. When I was a kid I read a book that mentioned a lorry. That threw me for a loop. Someone here, please volunteer to compile this glossary! ;-) #130, So a sundae was a drink in Brooklyn? In Manhattan, it was (and is) ice cream with a sauce and other toppings. Or do you mean there was actually something called a frappe in Bklyn, and that a Bklyn frappe was different from a Boston frappe (a drink)? I never even heard the word until I went to Boston. No one has mentioned my favorite, a malt. It was a milkshake (the ice cream kind) with malt added. Great taste. More on milkshakes from Wikipedia. #133--No, a frappe was a sundae. Ice cream with sauce & toppings. The drink frappe was Boston. #134-- A malted was divine! As for something not mentioned--how about an egg cream? A chocolate soda with neither egg nor cream! Chocolate syrup with a splash of whole milk, then filled from the fountain seltzer dispenser with a sharp stream. Also known a a 2 cent egg cream (Boy! That goes W-A-A-Y back!) #122 and 124 - How DO you pronounce Siobhan? I have always wondered, but never heard it said out loud, unless I just didn't recognize it. >137 marise: pronounced 'Shi-vawn'. #136 I love egg creams. You can't get them in Cali, tho. At least we have Krispy Kreme now. # 138 Thanks! :) I am learning so much since I joined LT! #139- SoCal had some of my favorite Mom & Pop grinder shops when I lived there. Plus, The Hat, which has some of the best heart-attack-on-a-plate food ever. >107 MerryMary: =^D My co-worker's Minnesota farmer father just moved to Texas. I tell her to watch for that one. Siobhan is a fairly common name in this part of Ontario (many Irish and Scots settlers). If you pronounce it chiffon, watch the Siobhan person go ballistic. It's pronounced more Sho-VAN here. Caitlin is very popular but always mispronounced as Katelynn. Portia is pronounced PORSHea here. Canadians used to say 'I have got' but gotten has crept into the language. It makes me wince. But the one which really sends me off the cliff is 'like'. Conversation overheard in a hardware store: 'so I was, like, really upset and he was, like, so? I could have so totally, like, killed him.' Aaaarrrrggghh! It seems incurable. #107 Merrymary, Minnesota strikes me as the most 'Canadian' of the states in its sensibilities--maybe the entire south shore of Lake Superior, also? Michigan's Upper Peninsulans actually know what a toque ('took') is--a knit hat, usually with pompom. Except that UPers (sp?) pronounce it 'chook'. And Minnesotans know how to play broomball! (Really, really nice people, Minnesotans--like Newfoundlanders (Newfs).) >119 Seajack: Seajack Not sure that 'sav' refers to fish...? The only 'sav' I know in Australia is a shortened version of the french word 'sauvignon' (wine). For example, Aussies tend to use 'cab sav' for cabernet sauvignon; 'sav blanc' for sauvignon blanc; or 'chardy' for chardonnay. Maybe AJ was referring to a glass of 'sav' with her fish & chips? :D A while back I was watching Footballer's Wives on BBC. Sometimes the speaker usually woman would end a sentence with the expression 'yeah yeah'? Is that like saying okay? #43 'Leisure suit is an oxymoron.' LOL, nemoman! I'll have to add that to my collection. And 'terrapins' hold the ground in place. 'Superheroes' are giant sandwiches. 'Groundhogs' are made from minced pork. 'Sweetbreads' are pastries. A 'litterbox' is a place to put trash collected off the street. A 'pup' tent is a portable doghouse. And 'hot dogs' are what you get when you leave the pup tent in the sun all day. ;-) >146 gautherbelle: G'belle, I'm not a Cockney but I would imagine that 'yeah yeah?' is an expression at the end of sentence, used by the speaker to seek confirmation or approval, i.e. a questioning statement. It is said with a rising inflection and is similar to 'd'ya know wot I mean?' or 'innit?' ('isn't it?'). E.g.'That's got to be the best goal ever, innit!' (As a teenager, I watched quite a bit of Eastenders in the 1980s :P). > 141 grinder shops? You talkin' about heroes? Nah ... I think it's a reference to hoagies. >150 Seajack: Yeah, a hero (New York). You are from Philly? I was raised in New Jersey ... where I always thought of those sandwiches as 'subs' myself - LOL > 119 Seajack I think it could be a battered sav. Short for saveloy (a long thin frankfurt). Some fish and chip shops also sell deep fried battered Mars bars. Erck. >153 pamelad: pamelad Must admit to never having heard of a 'battered sav'. Never seen deep fried Mars bars in Oz either. I've seen them on British TV travel shows, though, being fried up in the same oil as the cod, bleh :( it was the battered black pudding (whole) that I was impressed with in Scotland! For this UKer can someone run through a quick description of the variations of a simple sandwich 'sarnie' mentioned above. Hoagie? sub? Over here, sarnie's are made with two bits of bread. (a round of sandwiches specifically refers to 2 slices of bread cut diagonally) Or you could be posh and have a bagette. Or common and have a 'buttie' which is often made from soft rolls, that have a variety of names including 'barm'. As a Briton I have never seen a battered saveloy either. Battered sausage yes. In the UK saveloys are usually unbattered but I guess the chippie would throw it in the batter and fry it for you if that is how you like them. Doing a google I see more hits for battered saveloy from Oz than Britain. There is even a www.batteredsav.com website which has reviews. That website seems almost purely Oz based. digifish Some entrepreneurial fish and chip shop proprietors in Victoria must have seen the same travel show. Fortunately fried mars bars are not common. Loved the website andyl, particularly the science section. Those boys are real dags. #155- These names refer to sandwiches on small 'loaves' of bread usually six or twelve inches long and three inches wide. Usually done with cold cuts and veggies but many are hot or toasted. Many different kinds of bread are used. Cosmo- Usaully toasted and used mostly in Pennsylvania. Grinder- Mostly used in New England and Southern California. I'm not sure how the term came to be used so far apart. There's a lot of miles between the two regions. Hero- New York and Northern New Jersey. Hoagie- Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. Submarine- I think it started in Boston but is used in many parts of the US now. Poor Boy or Po' Boy- New Orleans and surrounding areas. >157 pamelad: pamelad - I've looked into it a bit more and I reckon 'battered savs' are the Eastern Australian equivalent of what we called 'Pluto Pups' in WA and SA. These are slightly different from a regular crumbed/fried sausage, however, which is not a cornmeal-based batter, more a regular breadcrumb batter with a pork/beef sausage (not a hot-dog style frankfurt). In this South Australian roadhouse menu Pluto Pups and Crumbed Sausages are listed separately. http://www.riverlandlocal.com.au/paringaroadhouse/menu.php 159: digifish, I think your Pluto Pups are what are called corn dogs in the US. A hot dog coated in a cornmeal batter and deep fried? That's a corn dog. :) >160 verbafacio: Indeed, verba! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_dogs OK, I'm off to find some fried food now.... :D #155 - ah, sandwiches, now you're talking! In our family we do Dockers' Wedges (it's a London Thing: my dad's entire family worked in the King George V dock in East London before, during and after the war). Basically, fresh bread cut thickly with a huge filling and lots of butter. If it's done properly, you have to almost dislocate your jaw to take the first bite. The nicest regional sandwiches I ever had were in Newcastle, the Stotty (sp?). A lovely, huge, round brown bread bun with grains and the filling of your choice. Great. It is such a shame we can't hear each others' voices: I have a very distinctive and localised accent that Southerners can pinpoint within six miles (between Tower Bridge and the Woolwich Ferry). I can 'do' a 'posh' accent but I start slipping into parody and end up laughing like Mutley. My ideal job would be to work as a 'Cockney voice coach' in Hollywood: no more horrors like (gulp) Dick Van Dyke in (cringe) Mary Poppins - I literally have to watch that behind a cushion with my mp3 player on, his mangling of the Queen's English is terrible. Ditto when Jessica Fletcher 'goes to London' in Murder She Wrote: I turn over before the faux-cockneys get on screen. Americans can 'do' posh but only Johnny Depp has ever convinced me that he's English in films. #162> Hera, do you think Angela Lansbury lost her English accent? Perhaps because she has lived in the US for so many years....Hugh Laurie, on the other hand, has very convincing American accent when he plays House. I agree on Dick Van Dyke.....AWFUL! (the accent, I mean). #158 - I grew up in SoCal and I never heard of 'grinder' for 'sub' until I moved to the east coast. When did you live there? 85 - Tiffin: In the States, we wear rubbers as well (on our FEET!), but they aren't boots; they're (black) rubber coverings for regular shoes to prevent getting soiled by snow/slush/rain. 155 - Reading Fox: I have been curious about this word 'sarnie' - any specific connotations, or is it pretty much interchangeable weith sandwich? 158 - Ghost: I guess Quiznos serves cosmos as their sandwiches are toasted by default (although I notice Subway seems to be going that route, too). Actually, I wish they would serve cosmos -- the drink! LOL 160 - Verb: Thank you! I can relate to a corn dog, although I believe I've had only a couple in my life. A J Rochester gets her 'battered savs' from the chip shop (let's assume they have a different pan of oil for the fish!); I can't imagine getting all worked up over eating corn dogs at home for take out food- to me they're something served at fairs/carnivals. Along with funnel cakes ... 162 - Hera: Those huge Newcastle filled loaves remind of the cute trick here where restaurants scoop out a giant round loaf to fill with soup (an edible bowl). I cringe at the idea of 'chip butties' (french fry sandwiches?) -- all that starch! You mean Mel Gibson is not Scottish?? Shrek is, though, right?! {;> Being a good South East London girl who has remained true to her accent through thick and thin (and it's been rough, in class-ridden parts of the country, naming no names), I sound like Kathy Burke or more likely Big Mo (Gary Oldman's sister) on Eastenders, with a certain 'Southeastlondon nasal whine' as my ex husband put it. (Rich coming from a whiney Scouser, but still). I have an abundance of Glottal Stop issues that mean rendering my speech phonetically is meaningless. Professor Higgins would have had me installed in his front bedroom quick sharp if he'd copped an earful of my gob. I've tried to learn the phonetic alphabet several times without success: Greek's easier and so, even, are Dutch dipthongs. On a previous forum (now happily defunct and not mourned) we all posted soundclips from our pcs to identify ourselves. It was hilarious. Due to my rather 'clipped' and precise English, plus formidable Grammar Nazi reputation no one would believe the clip was 'really' me. I sound so 'sarf lundun'. I love my accent and wouldn't change it; it absolutely locates me firmly in my roots. I suppose everyone feels like that, though. #165 - yep pretty interchangable, more common in some regions, and from some backgrounds than others. You wouldn't find 'sarnies' in Harrods, they wouldn't come with the crusts cut off, nor would they contain cucumber. Chip Buttie - yes its a french fry sandwich, except that its made with proper chips, cut from potatoes, generally twice the diamemter of a french fry, often not as crisp. And you can't get enough chips between two bits of bread, the bread goes soggy too quickly so its normally served in a barm. Thanks -- and I'm reminded of another trans-Atlantic difference: Jacket Potatoes become Stuffed Potatoes in the New World. I understand the latter would sound crude in the U.K. 168> On Sarnie I would only use it for normal sandwiches. Fancy toasted sandwiches wouldn't be a sarnie in my book it would be a toastie. 169> On Stuffed Potato What even if they don't have anything in but butter? #167--Glottal stops are found not only in your part of the world. Here in the metropolitan NY-NJ area, they are rampant & drive me nuts! Bu'n and bu'er (button and butter) are 2 of the most common stops to be heard. 167> I'm a Yellow Belly (from Lincolnshire) and the usual greeting is 'Now then?'. However it is pronounced in a most unusual manner - more like nairn but with almost every possible vowel sound in place of the ai. It would test anyone to try and render it in IPA so I am not even going to try. #167--I fogot to include bo'l, as in bottle. And perhaps I shouldn't have said 'stops to be heard;' maybe they are unheard, as in unheard parts of words. :) 170 Andy: Just butter would be a 'baked potato' here (I suppose); to me, part of the stuffing process involves hollowing out the potato, and then adding mix-ins (like ice cream parlors do now) to the removed (mashed) contents, before returning the mixed result to the cooked skin (jacket). I can't see going through all that trouble for just butter? I don't eat stuffed potatoes myself. The last time I had a baked (un-stuffed) potato at a restaurant here, it came with butter, sour cream, chopped scallions (a/k/a spring onions/green onions), and bacon bits to moosh in one's self at the table. I think part of the difference may be that North Americans traditionally eat the baked entire potato - skin and all 173 Leel: You mean as in that chain of NJ liquor stores 'Bo'l King'? 174> No we eat the skin as well. The typical jacket potato is the potato with butter and cheese grated on the top. The hollowing out, mashing with stuff and putting back in is done sometimes but it isn't the bog standard jacket spud. #173 - thanks, Leel, that made me laugh a LOT. Hoorah for the glo**l stop. If you're in a room full of my family, it often sounds as if several bottles of beer are being opened: such is the resonance of our glottii. ;D And boy, do we love to TALK in my family. We suck the oxygen out of a room, seriously. I had planned to go to New York as a treat for my mum, but life has conspired to scupper that plan. I absolutely love the sound of New York: my (excessively well-travelled friend Rachel) says that NY is 'so YOU', according to my dress sense and tastes generally. If agitated, I talk at the speed of a machine gun, as does my family and the rest of our little SE London village. A friend from Bristol (West Country, my lover, my babs) visited me and on the bus she was startled to hear so many women who sounded like me. In the West Country (Bath, Somerset and down to Devon) a broad SEL accent like mine is apparently rare. The Bristolian kids I taught LOVED my accent. They often 'sang' the theme tune to Eastenders when I walked into class. LOL. They'd ask me what certain bits of slang meant and ask me to say certain phrases that 'cracked them up'. It was a most excellent ice-breaker to put on a very high-class accent and announce myself as 'Ms X, your substitute teacher. Mr X is not here today' and so forth. As things got moving along and they tried various well-tested and ancient means to distract everyone from the (poorly prepared and frankly obvious last-minute lesson plan) I would get more 'London'. After that they would stop, as they say in my village, 'taking the piss' and know I meant business. What, if anything, is wrong with this sentence? Please do not dispose paper towels in toilets. The Hawaiian language is full of glottal stops. The name of the state is properly represented as Hawai'i, and each individual island has stops as well. The furthest-most west island is properly spelt Kaua'i. Here's a bit of Boston area jargon that I think is just about extinct: As best I can tell, I'm the last person on earth who still calls the stuff you put on top of ice cream 'jimmies', not sprinkles and not shots. And though I've lived my whole life in New England 'cabinets' is a new one on me, though I had heard of Rhode Islanders drinking 'coffee-milk.' #155, my understanding is that 'hero' is actually an anglicized corruption of the Greek 'gyros.' Which I admit is rather odd, given that nowadays they really aren't the same thing. Linkmeister, I am so THERE. Great surf, beautiful babes, sun, sand, and now bona fide glottals. Wow. *blown away. 85 > I can honestly say that living in Manitoba and Ontario, rubber boots were always 'rubber boots' and never just 'rubbers'. 172 here a yellow belly is a coward. Them's fightin' words! When you take the potato out the skin and mix it with other stuff and put it back and then run it back in the oven, it's called a twice baked potato. I think we said rubbers and rubber boots interchangeably in the several Canadian provinces that I called home? But 'rubbie' is a true Canadianism, as far as I know (= a drunk leaning / rubbing against a lampost). And 'bum' was one's anatomical bottom as well as a poor, homeless / street person. (I think only means the latter in the US?) Interesting that Manitoba originated 'hoser' (vaguely insulting name) and Indiana 'hoosier' (someone from Indiana), but neither state/province seems to be certain of the origins? Although there are lots of stories! I've never heard 'rubbers' used to mean 'boots' in the US. Around here, it means condoms. Hera, here's more info about the Hawai'ian language: http://www.geocities.com/~olelo/o-linkpage.html Olelo is the public Television local programming outfit, now with about six channels on the local cable company. weren't rubber boots called galloshes? >179 gmork: gmork In Australia we call the multi-coloured sprinkles 'hundreds and thousands.' Sandwiches are called sangers (from sangwidge?). # 164- I left in 1999. The last place I lived was inland in the San Gabriel Valley. A lot of the grinder shops I remember were strung along Arrow Hwy ( the old Route 66) around Azusa, Glendora, San Dimas, Montclair and Rancho Cucamonga. A couple in Ontario and then some in the Riverside area. I don't remember any in the San Fernando Valley, LA, Santa Monica, Long Beach or in Orange County. Maybe they were a relic left over from the glory days of Route 66. Every time I've been back more of that old stuff disappears to make room for new strip malls. #185--you're obviously too young:) Rubbers were (are) rubber overshoes. That they are also condoms is something else again. #187--Boots are NOT galoshes. Galoshes are somewhat tall, but not as tall as boots, and are open in front, closed with special attached clips. They go back to at least the 1920s, when hotties wore them unclosed. Now, let a true Nebraskan tell you about runzas, kolaches, and putting an 'r' in the word 'wash'!! Runzas are seasoned ground meat, onions and diced cabbage enclosed in a dough shell and baked. Sometimes includes cheese. Invented by German immigrants, but as far as I can tell, completely unknown in Germany. Kolaches are wonderful Czech pasteries with a little well in the center filled with wonderful things like cherries, poppy seeds, or even cottage cheese. Another gift from immigrants to Nebraska. And yes, unless specifically trained to the contrary, middle Nebraskans, especially those several generations deep into the soil, put an extraneous and completely unexplainable 'r' into the word 'wash.' When I was 10 I got a crossword puzzle screwed up when I needed a 5 letter word for 'remove dirt,' and I put in W-A-R-S-H. (I don't say it anymore.) #177, Morphidae: I believe you have to say 'dispose of' not just 'dispose.' #176, Hera: If you also walk very fast, you're definitely a New Yorker in exile. #184--we say 'bum' for your bottom in my family, and I'm from NJ (in CT now), but as I think of it I don't know anyone else who says it. My grandmother was Irish (my mom was born there but moved to NJ as a baby), so that's probably where we got it. 183> As far as yellow belly goes the etymology seems mired in obscurity. See this BBC page for some ideas and in particular the link to suggestions from the readers. Other sites like this one have even more possible sources of the phrase. 179 gmork -- While I would instinctively call them 'sprinkles' on my ice cream cone, having spent a lot of time in New England, I'd recognize the term 'jimmies' immediately. 185 bluesalamanders -- I've always heard 'rubbers' in the States to be the rubber shoe coverings (below ankle level). 'Galoshes' to me are the kind of rubber boots that have several buckles up the front. 192 Rebecca -- Guilty as charged - the problem is that everyone else moves too slow! And, yes, I stand ON line not 'in line' when queue-ing. I cringe whenever I run across the term 'sammich' - ARGH! (far too corny!) When my daughter was in college I dated an artist named Ramsess. My daughter's roommate thought it was very broadminded of me to date a man named after a condom. I started reading Winston S. Churchill's the Gathering Storm yesterday, and I have some questions about the following passage: '...my office as Secretary of State for the Dominions and Colonies, in which I conceived myself to have had some parliamentary and administrative success. Mr. Bonar Law, who had left us a year before for serious reasons of health, reluctantly became Prime Minister. He formed what one might call 'The Second Eleven.' Mr. Baldwin, the outstanding figure, was Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Prime Minister asked the King for a dissolution (page 21).' What do these government offices refer to? The 'Second Eleven'? Who were the First Eleven, and eleven what? A dissolution for what, and why? If any of y'all can recommend some 'Brit government for dummies' books (and how about some for Australia while I'm at it), they would be much appreciated. I'd imagine SecState Dominions and Colonies meant he was the Cabinet member responsible for India and all the other British colonies; Canada is/was a Dominion of the UK at the time. Second Eleven I can't help with. Chancellor of the Exchequer is equivalent to US Secretary of the Treasury. Gordon Brown, more or less anointed to be Tony Blair's successor as Prime Minister at the end of June, has been Chancellor of the Exchequer for nearly ten years. Dissolution refers to the monarch's right to dissolve Parliament. Usually done when it can't agree on an important issue (I think. Anyone smarter than me about that, jump in.). This message has been deleted by its author. 198> Very close. Secretary of State for the Dominions and Colonies was for all the dominions and colonies apart from India which had its own Secretary of State until 1925. The second eleven (and by extension the first eleven) are sporting terms. The second eleven being the second team (ie less talented than those in the first eleven). I am sure that Churchill would have seen himself as turning out for the first team along with Lloyd George as he was a liberal at the time. Bonar Law was a conservative. My message disappeared, so here it is again. The first eleven is the better cricket team and the second eleven is the reserve team. like the second string? Yes, the B team. >192 rebeccanyc: Ha! It was driving me crazy since that is on a sign in EVERY bathroom at work. I want to take a huge black marker and write 'OF' on all of them. *mutters* #191 I have heard the word 'wash' as 'warsh' in southern Ohio. When our family lived for a short time in northern Ohio (1957) we were told that putting in that extra 'r' was the way to tell the difference between the parts of that state. I think the word we were talking about back then was 'Warshington'. In vs. on When I was stationed in Newfoundland in 1965 (or posted to, as some might say) while in the U.S. Navy, I heard the use of 'in' as 'in the island' whereas I had always heard and used 'on the island'. Subsequently, in 1975, when I visited the Island of Man, I heard 'in the island' again. Also, the really big boots that come up close to the knees, or perhaps over them are called by some 'gaiters'. (I don't know how widespread this usage is, but I first heard it in Nfld). #204 Why don't you?! (As long as you don't get caught, of course.) Some years ago, I used to hike in an area that had sign-in books that referred to 'woodsmen.' I always added in 'and woodswomen.' #191 & 205, my aunt comes from south-eastern Ontario and she says 'warsh' too. I was always so confused when I was little and she'd say 'It's going to be busy tomorrow, first I have to do the warsh.' She also said 'crick' for creek. #206 vpfluke, ah, but Newfs have so much of their own, wonderful, colourful language. I met my first Newf when I was in basic training and I used to love getting her mad just to hear her swear in Newf - it was so funny :-) It was English, but totally incomprehensible (to me anyways!). The Rs in wash out west are exiles from Boston because everybody pahks the cah in Hahvahd yahd. I'm in the Northwestern US (Montana). The other day I drove up to the local fast food restaurant and ordered an unsweetened ice tea. The girl on the other end of the microphone said 'one sweet tea, no sugar' . Now that one left me confused! She said she just moved up from Alabama where ice tea is called sweet tea whether its sweet or not. 205 vpfluke Ah, yes. Warsh. My mom is from southern Ohio, and while the rest of my accent is straightfoward mid-Michigan, I do sometimes say 'warsh/Warshington' and 'onvelope' (instead of envelope). Somehow, my sister didn't pick those up, but I did. Like everything else I've mentioned, though, I go back and forth between both versions. #211--Now that's funny. I was born in Brooklyn, lived in Massachusetts, and now in New Jersey, but I always say 'onvelope'---now where did THAT come from?? My Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Edition - 1997) states that both pronunications have equal frequency of use. The onvelope comes from the French original, which in our Francophile household, we were taught this was the correct pronunciation. The dictionary states that the word has been in English for 300 years. The envelope pronunciation is somewhat like the hypercorrect pronunciation of the the 't' in 'often.' What's branch? It's a mixer you put in spirits, but what? Dry ginger ale? Soda water? Mineral water? pamelad, it's a US western expression. 'Branch water' is just spring/creek water. No (artificial) additives, just fresh water. From Drinkstreet.com ... Branch water: A term first used in the 1800s referring to pure, clean water from a tiny stream called a 'branch.' An order for 'bourbon and branch' is a nostalgic request for bourbon and water. I'm originally from Tennessee where we say branch which is the same as a spring. Most often bourbon is the drink mixed with branch water. Re: Angela Lansbury (and the name Fanny) ... She's in a play in New York; her character is a retired tennis champion. She has an American accent when she tosses out the word 'c*nt' a couple of times. Imagine that from Jessica Fletcher! Well, remember that Lansbury's most famous movie role was as the manipulative mother in the original Manchurian Candidate. Didn't she get an oscar nom. for her first movie, Gas Light where she was the manipulative maid? I went to college in Pittsburgh, and they definitely said 'warsh' for 'wash.' It also appeared that 'to be' was not part of the Pittsburgh vocabulary ('the car needs warshed'). Also in Pittsburgh, rubber bands are called 'gumbands.' I haven't heard that elsewhere. *edited for typo. Gautherbelle, I didn't know that. You're absolutely right, as IMDB tells us. I saw the movie many years ago but was reminded of it when the Turner Classic Movie station on cable did an indepth interview with her recently. >208 katylit: 'Crick' is not unique to Ontario - more a rural vs urban thing. I absolutely do not say that word, because 'crick' sounds so redneck to urbanites, and 'creek' sounds way too pretentious to rural folks. >221 cabegley: 'Warsh' is common around Pittsburgh, but not unique to that area. However, if someone says 'you'ns' (not sure how to spell that), you KNOW they are from Pittsburgh! Interesting dialect map of American English here: http://www.geocities.com/yvain.geo/dialects.html 'Branch water' gets a mention in Ian Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever! #206 - Gaiters... Gaiters are cloth these days waterproof that hooks onto ankle boots, and comes up close to the knees, originally to prevent seeds from getting into the socks and now to keep mud and rain out. Used extensively by hikers. From distance it could look like hikers were wearing tall boots. #224--I can't believe I forgot about 'you'ns' (it sounds like 'yins')! #220, 222, 223 I could hardly believe it was Angela Lansbury the first time I saw Gaslight. Quite the saucy little maid! According to the dialect map listed above, my Nebraska 'warsh' came in the covered wagon from my Pennsylvania ancestors - which follows family lore. Where I live, in the Sandhills, is on the edge of the western influence, which explains the Spanish words I know that deal with ranch life. I once knew a lady from Pennsylvania Dutch country that used the term, 'outten the lights', for turn the lights off. My Mom was raised in Idaho ranch country and we grew up using warsh and even squarsh. Somehow, she also uses clift for cliff and I'm not sure where that came from. My grandfather always said 'purt near for close. As in, that car 'purt near ran over me. That reminds me of my very wealthy, prim grandmother who couldn't pronounce 'iron' (i-earn) to save her life. To her it was 'i-ren.' My mother says 'i-ren'! No one else in the family does, just her. I-ren, 'butt-tin' for button, and 'mirra' for mirror. Where is she from? My grandmother is from the South (SC.) #191 MerryMary, Virginians also do that too. Putting 'r' where it's not necessary ('winder' instead of window and 'ideer' instead of 'idea'). #211 bluesalamanders, The en/on for envelope is similar to the different way to say 'aunt'. Some people say 'ant' but others with the 'a' is an 'ah'. I say it 'ahunt' >234 Morphidae: Born and raised in NW Indiana but she spent a good amount of time in Georgia and New Jersey in the 60s. She also always called a shopping cart a 'buggy', so that's what I grew up calling it. When I first went to a grocery store with my husband he had a good laugh at me asking him to go back to the front and get a buggy. I hadn't yet noticed that no one else where I live now calls it that. Now I don't either. :P In Hawai'i trash is not trash, it's rubbish. A grocery cart is a wagon. >214 pamelad:-17 Thank you Linkmeister, Seajack and Gautherbelle. I've been wondering what branch was ever since JR ordered a bourbon and branch in Dallas. Driving from VA to IN yesterday we stopped in Maryland, and while the waitress was taking our order, she kept saying 'youse' when what she clearly meant to say was 'y'all'! (yankees!) :P I ran across this word yesterday, I believe it's Yiddish, can someone translate. 'tsuris.' In the sense of the sentence, it seemed to mean trouble or pains one went through because of a foul up. Thanks Belle #240, Gautherbelle, from the wonderful Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten: tsuris 'Troubles, woes, worries, suffering' Rebeccanyc, thanks. After I posted my question, it occurred to me that I could have gone online and looked it up, but this is more fun. Belle rebeccanyc #241: I got a battered old copy of that book (Joys of Yiddish) and agree with you that it's wonderful. #243, Mine is battered too -- and beloved (and just the thing to browse through if you're in need of a good laugh). I believe there is an updated version; I think I'll have to look for it. I'm at work. We have viewscreens in our elevators. They show, sports scores, weather and general interest stuff. I just read that scientists have discovered that dolphins have accents. 'Dolphins living off the coast of Wales whistle, bark and groan in a different dialect from dolphins off the western coast of Ireland, scientists have discovered.' So this translation thing seems to be cross-species. grape-nuts is cereal made of grain having the texture of fine gravel. it contains no grapes. wingtips are part of the American businessmen's uniform. They are lowcut, heavy shoes decorated with sewn-on leather cut to a pattern all but impossible to describe (filigree/arabesques/curlicues?) cordovan loafers are slip-on, dark brown leather shoes, related to penny-loafers, which have a slot in front into which can be inserted a copper penny. A leisure suit is a casual suit worn without a tie, normally after work. In reference to some of the earlier posts, my grandmother (born and raised in Middle Tennessee) would often say 'God willin' and the crick don't rise'. Branch water is the only thing to mix with Tennessee sipping whiskey but still slightly frowned on. (It should be imbibed 'straight'.) I always say soft drink for non-alcohalic carbonated beverages. #182: we actually said both but 'put your rubbers on' was the command from Mom (faster to say?) #177: it's missing 'of', as in dispose of... #184: 'bum' also means to ask someone for something without intending to pay it back (e.g, can I bum a cigarette?) #187: galoshes were those black or brown boots with the zipper or buckle which went over your shoes (man, am I dating myself!) #191: south-central Ontario here and my grade 6 teacher said 'warsh your hands in the zinc' - had never heard that before I moved here #204: go for it, Morph! This whole thread has been a hoot! I was born in Mennonite country in Ontario. They have wonderful sentence structures which result in funny visuals: throw the horse over the fence some hay; throw Papa down the stairs his hat, etc. One of my faves is 'we grow too soon old and too late smart'. #247 I'm from Tennesee also, Chattanooga right on the GA border. We also said 'If the good Lord's willin and the creek don't rise.' Tennessee Ernie Ford use to end his show with that tag line every week. Can some translate the below for me? I tried the online translator with no real success. I want the sense of the passage: Thanks. Et toi, ma chere. Qu'est-ce que c'est que ca? La nostalgie de la boue? Une gamine de New York? Enfin, tu es adorable. Je m'amuse. #249: tried to translate this for you on the later thread but my message never posted. Et toi, ma chère: and you, my dear. Qu'est-ce que c'est que ca?: what is it that it is? La nostalgie de la boue? here's where I'm a bit wobbly: nostalgia/homesickness for the mud/dirt/earth/soil? it might mean homesick for your roots but not sure Une gamine de New York?: a street-girl/urchin from New York? Enfin, tue es adorable: Finally/in short you are adorable. oops forgot the last bit: Je m'amuse: I amuse myself. Thanks tiffin with your help I can now put it together based on the sense of the chapter I was reading. First Speaker: And you my dear, What is this all about? Nostalgia for your roots? A street urchin from New York {he's a boy}? In short, you are adorable. Second Speaker: I amuse myself. >86 vpfluke: Hurrah! I was just waiting for someone to bring up the word 'tonic.' As a Yankee (level 4 according to your definition), I grew up calling soda, 'tonic'. Somewhere in the last 50 or so years it has evolved into 'soda'. >179 gmork: yes! 'jimmies', although we often find ourselves translating that these days to make ourselves understood. 'rubbers' are both condoms and the name of those antiquated rubber shoes coverings which no one wears (to my knowledge) anymore. Boots are boots; one doesn't wear their shoes inside their boots. As a New Englander/Yankee working in a large, local police department in California in the 1970s, I would often send the officers to deal with loud, raucous parties. Over the radio I would say '415 party' (415 is the California penal code number for a disturbance) but what they heard was, '415 potty.' They found this the funniest thing and never let me forget it. Of course, the Californians claimed to not have accents. It is interesting to note that the distance between Portland, Maine, USA and San Francisco, CA, USA is roughly 3200 miles. This is roughly the distance between Portland, Maine, USA and London, England. Well all of us have accents. The broadcast standard (for radio) used to be educated speech of Cleveland, Ohio (1930's). However, the Great Lakes area is in the process of a vowel sound shift which is pushing the accent away from the rest of the U.S. There is a somewhat neutral upper middle class accent that is spoken in many not-deep-in-the-center-city places from the Maryland suburbs of Washington to the western suburbs of Boston. (many, not most) I think this is as close as one gets to a broadcast standard, but this is somewhat of an east coast bias. Otherwise, many more broadcasters speak their native accent than I ever heard growing up inthe 1950's. One thing I didn't know about Canada until very recently is the milk bag. Milk packaged in plastic sacks just seemed so crazy to me. And they're kept open in the refrigerator? Why not go with the safe milk jug that doesn't require scissors to be opened? This Canadian doesn't know why we use milk bags, clickforth. It's just a fact of life. I think perhaps they stack more easily in the cooler shelves, so you can fit more in? Milk tasted better in the old glass jugs, that's for certain. I live in Western Canada and the last time I saw milk in a bag was about 20 years ago. We have either plastic jugs or that waxed cardboard stuff (depends on the brand). The only milk-in-a-bag available where I live is the powdered kind. :) >249 gautherbelle: Je m'amuse. I wank ... but it sounds so much better in French, doesn't it? >255 clickforth:-257 ... last time I saw milk in a bag was about 20 years ago. I wonder what the expiry dates are on the milk bags in tiffin's fridge? No wonder tiffin thinks the milk in the 'old glass jugs' tastes much better! Where I come from 'jugs' is a colloquial term for a woman's breasts ... now I'm really getting concerned about the source of tiffin's milk. The only time I have personally seen milk inside a clear plastic bag was when I once caught an unfortunate glimpse of a friend's colostomy bag! But really, unless you live alone (and even then!) you should never store those in the fridge. :( Because you never know when a French Canadian might come to visit you ... #63: I find both of those methods baffling. The only time I've ever seen anybody use a knife and fork on pizza is when it's too soggy and thin to hold, which is accompanied by immense grumbling and vows never to go to the pizzeria in question again. And why would you fold a slice of pizza? Again, it makes no sense to me unless it's simply too thin to hold by one hand, in which case the above grumblings and vows come into play. #92: I would find most of those phrases odd even if you used the word 'cigarette'. #102: In America, only exceedingly pretentious people would say 'bloody'. Or possibly people who've read too much Robert Jordan. #259: Personally, I don't think I've ever heard anybody refer to a container of milk as a 'jug' or a 'carton' or anything. It's always just a 'gallon' or 'half-gallon', or whatever. I think the plastic containers say 'carton' on them, though. I know the cardboard ones do. One Britishism that always confuses me is the word 'torch'. When I think of a torch, I think of a piece of wood that's on fire that some Viking uses, not a portable light bulb. Also, pronouncing 'idea' with an 'r'. Ideeeer. 3260--You fold a slice of pizza in an an attempt to avoid losing some of the content to the plate or, worse yet, the front of you before it makes its way into your mouth! As for ideeer--in the NY area it's more commonly heard as idee-uh. Similar to Christopher as heard on The Sopranos--Christophuh. The Neww York accent is NOT pretty! >#102: In America, only exceedingly pretentious people would say 'bloody'. Or possibly people who've read too much Robert Jordan. I use 'bloody' quite a bit. I use it instead of the 'f-word.' I'm about as far from pretentious as you can get and I stopped reading Jordan after the fourth one. >#102: In America, only exceedingly pretentious people would say 'bloody'. Or possibly people who've read too much Robert Jordan. Or a naturalized American, with a Cape Bretoner dad who was career military, and who used the expression a LOT! (Possibly in place of the 'f-word', per #262?) Others down-easters from Dad: 'going like a one-armed man with the itch' 'better than a slap in the belly with a frozen fish' {:o> I use 'bloody' quite a bit myself, but perhaps it is because I learnt English in England.....who knows... >264 aluvalibri: I love the word 'learnt'. I wish it was used more in the USA. :-)) 263: Around here (Nebraska) we say 'Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.' #263/264: I didn't think I needed to state the obvious fact that an Englishperson who happens to be in America is a special case. I don't know what Morphidae's excuse is, though. #260: That doesn't happen with good pizza. If I can't pick up and hold a slice of pizza by the end-crust and have it stay reasonably horizontal, there's something wrong with it as far as I'm concerned. >268 stochasticooze: One doesn't need an excuse, pretentiousness, or to be a Jordan reader to use the word. It's a great (and fun) replacement for words I don't want to say in front of my mother. I know when I was growing up adults sometimes chided youngsters for saying bloody. The typical response by a cheeky young thing would be 'Bloody's in the Bible, bloody's in the book, if you don't bloody believe me then have a bloody look.' >267 MerryMary:Around here (Nebraska) we say 'Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.' No, no, no, no .... that's way too polite and languid. People use that expression to vent their frustration at not getting what they really wanted or expected and so they console themselves that things could still have been much worse (without really believing it). So it needs to be snarled with a great deal of pent-up disappointment and frustration, like so ... 'It's better than a ruddy poke in the bleeding eye with a bloody sharp stick.' And you don't have to be 'exceedingly pretentious' in order to insert those B-words ... just totally frustrated at the rotten cards that life always seems to deal you. Inserted F-words work very well, too! >263 margd:'better than a slap in the belly with a frozen fish' Interestingly (for this thread) I believe the origins of the 'poke in the eye' expression are Australian. Plus I always thought the Canadian equivalent of this expression was, 'It's better than a kick in the ass with a frozen boot.' Isn't the American equivalent, 'It's better than a slap across the belly with a wet fish' ? Blend those two expressions together and you get margd's quoted variant. Which only goes to prove that there are more ways to kill a cat than by choking it with butter. Feeding it a saucer of milk from tiffin's fridge would most likely be another one of them! :( Edited to add some more variants: - 'It's better than a kick in the crotch.' - 'It's better than a thump on the back with a stone.' - 'It's better than a finger in your eye.' #267 MerryMary I learned 'Better than a sharp stick in the eye!' in New Jersey, believing it was a Mid-Atlantic thing. Folks from other regions had never heard that one. #257: all of our 3 litre milk comes in those plastic bags (3 individual 1 litre bags in a larger bag); we have 1 litre and 2 litre milk in wax/cardboard containers and some smaller places (like Mac's Milk) used to sell milk in large plastic jugs which had to be returned as there was a deposit on them. They haven't been out west for 20 years? #260: milk jug is a pretty common term, especially for we folk of middling years - and particularly if your milk comes in plastic 1 litre bags. You need the milk jug to hold it. I also eat pizza with a knife and fork: personal choice. #262 Morph: I have been known to use bloody too - it's often combined with 'bloody hell' in these parts. Am relatively unpretentious as well. #263: love Cape Breton and its folk. They have GREAT expressions there. #267 Yes, I'm in Jersey, and use 'Better than a sharp stick in the eye' al the time. Re milk in bags: I remember floppy milk bags from Germany in the 1960s/70s. Very inconvenient: always falling over, had to be opened with scissors, and they never poured well. At that time in Britain and Holland milk came in returnable glass bottles, so we always found the German system rather strange. As far as I know, the bags have now all been replaced by Tetrapaks, but Germans still seem to use the word Milchtüte for them. >259 Rule42: GOT MILK ??? Sorry, but it looks like a colostomy bag. can someone help translate this. votre pere devoue. Your father _________? Thanks Belle >278 gautherbelle:votre pere devoue. Translation: 'Your devoured father.' Apparently, someone ate him ... and based on all the peculiar eating and drinking habits that have been revealed so far on this thread, I'd hazard a guess that it was most likely a Canadian! >278 gautherbelle: votre père dévoué {with accents} A more serious translation is 'your devoted father'. >280 pythagoras: I knéw thât ... thanks to you 280 for the translation and to you 279 for the laugh. >282 gautherbelle: You're vewy welcome. I actually wanted to post that BabelFish is my friend but unfortunately I have moths in my closet and I wouldn't have heard the end of it. :( Lamentably, the BabelFish website wouldn't have helped you on this one, and some of its suggested translations are frequently a lot whackier than mine (#279) - except that BabelFish isn't intentionally trying to be amusing. I guess BabelFish is to language translation what William McGonagall is to poetry. yes, I've become disenchanted with bablefish. And sometimes it doesn't translate at all. You put in foreign text and it give you back the same text untranslated. You guys are so much better. Belle 'You guys are so much better.' If no more trustworthy. ;) >126 gautherbelle:Also the writer Niall Fergerson have never seen it (Neal) spelled this way. You're not the only person to wonder about that one. I believe the origins of his name are Ethiopian. >253 avaland:415 is the California penal code number for a disturbance WOW ... and it's also the temperature at which paper starts to burn! How spooky is that? >286 Rule42: Typing 'Ethiopian' when we mean 'Gaelic' is surprisingly easy, isn't it? It must be an emordnilap or something. >288 thorold: No, no ... I actually meant 'Ethiopian.' I certainly didn't mean to type 'Gaelic.' :( I guess I should have first established which Fergerson I was referring to ... the white one, or the blue one. I'm pretty certain that the blue one originates from somehere close to Lake Tana in Ethiopia, though I could be wrong. Many better men than me have spent their entire lives searching for the true source of the Niall !! :) Yes, of course the Blue Niall. Silly of me. I must have missed the second 'er' in Fergerson. >288 thorold:It must be an emordnilap or something. I think you might be getting confused with the true source of the Panama Canal ! :) A man, a plan, a canal ... Panama! 'Very inconvenient: always falling over, had to be opened with scissors, and they never poured well.' Exactly, Thorold. >287 Rule42: That's 451 : P >294 clickforth: Not if there's a wind-chill factor of 36 degrees. On those kind of days, paper ignites at 415 degrees - so stick that in your pipe and smoke it! >295 Rule42: Wouldn't that be 487 degrees by your logic? >296 thorold: Ha, ha ... oh, you think you're damn smart, don't you? But here's the rub. Because I'm a scientist, naturally I was using degrees Kelvin in preference to Fahrenheit. So with due respect, STIYPASI. *does a little victory jig* >297 Rule42: {Looks puzzled, but resists the urge to be pedantic about unscientific expression degrees Kelvin} What exactly are you rubbing it with, to make it ignite at 415 K? Concentrated nitric acid? {stands well back} Or aqua regia? 300Rule42This message has been flagged by multiple users and is no longer displayed (show) >298 thorold: Ohhh Kelvin Schmelvin ... go ahead, be as pedantic as you want and let's both get bogged down in semantics here. So I said 'degrees Kelvin' when I should have said just 'kelvins' ... BFD ... I only said that because I'm an older scientist and old habits die hard. Listen, I'm not anti-semantic - some of my best friends are words - but let's try and stick to the issue here! So to reiterate ... when there's a wind-chill factor of 36 degrees F, paper burns at 415 K. Got it? That's with a K ... K ... K ... OK? BTW, do you know what temperature wooden crosses ignite at? Because me and some of my fellow scientists down south would love to give you a practical demonstration. I would also offer to give you a practical demonstration of the temperature at which paper ignites but unfortunately my scientific colleague Dr. Theodore Kaczynski (who usually assists me in these demonstrations) is unavoidably detained right now. >299 hailelib: 'Or aqua regia?' I wouldn't be so base as to use a substance like that. I'm much more noble than that. >300 Rule42: Hi Mom, hi Dad, hi sis ... Hee, hee ... I love it when my family members make the effort to turn out to let me know they are reading my posts. #87 That's pronounced 'tawnic' right? Yep. Tonic = tawnic. Sometimes there's a nasally twang to it depending on where the speaker is actually from. Or a pronounced flattening of the O sound. Waking up the thread for booksloth :-). Curse you GirlFromIpanema. I just spent way too much time reading this whole thread, involuntarily I reckon. Robert New thread - similar subject - over here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/58604 Can anyone explain to me these regional differences? In Wisconsin, it's 'soda'. In Illinois, its 'pop'. Seriously? Why the dif? We share a border! (This has bothered me for quite sometime.) In Wisconsin, it's 'bubbler'. In Illinois and seemingly everywhere else, it's 'water fountain'. In Wisconsin, it's 'shopping cart'. In Massachusetts, it's 'shopping carriage'. (Perhaps a British carry-over?) A sloppy Wisconsinism, using the word 'borrow/ed' to mean both 'to borrow' and 'to lend'. My mother also puts R's in words. My favorite is 'idear'. She's from RI, that seems to be solely an RI thing in the many many accents of New England.... #308 I don't think you can claim a British influence for shopping carriage I am sure they post-date US Independence. We call they shopping trolleys by the way. There is a map where people are plotting the prevalence of pop vs soda in the US. I have a Scottish friend who calls fizzy drinks 'juice' and apparently 'ginger' is also used by some Scots. As this thread has been revivified, I may perhaps have an excuse for my favourite American/English misunderstanding. A recently immigrated English lady, who had been called into work by her boss to deal with a critical emergency during the small hours, her boss appearing at her apartment door and seeking admission, was relating that occurrence fairly loudly at a party, using the following English: 'He came and knocked me up in the middle of the night!' Suddenly, it seemed to the partygoers that even the descent of a pin would have been audible! This is surely one of the strangest Americanisms? That's weird - I'm English (from Yorkshire) and 'knocked me up' definitely means 'got me pregnant' to me, and nothing else! I wonder whereabouts she was from? You'd be surprised how much diversity there is even across our little sceptered isle! I recently read the young widow, a detective mystery set in an odd, parallel version of contemporary Britain where people still wear galoshes and the police are happy to be helped out by amateur aristocratic sleuths. Fine by me - I've no liking for gritty realism - but at one point the characters were eating 'popovers'. Does anyone know what a popover is? #312 Popovers, definitely written by an American then. They are a close relative of the Yorkshire Pudding. #311 Knocked up - to mean awakened by a knock on the door is a common English expression and appears in many works of 19th century British literature from Jane Austen to Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson. Dickens writes an essay on the humble profession of the knocker-up. We also use knocked-up to mean something prepared hastily. I only had 10 minutes for lunch so I knocked up a quick omelette. Also there is the term knock-up in tennis and cricket - to mean a quick warm-up before a real game or in some cases a very impromptu and informal game (in the case of cricket). Knocked-up to mean pregnant is in use in various parts. I am not sure whether that originated in the UK or the US. However we (the UK) does have knocking-shops (brothels if there are any Americans reading). In Britain we are quite capable of distinguishing all these uses through context and most of us are aware of them all even if one usage is more common. There are even a few parts of the United States where to be knocked up can mean to be awakened. But it's certainly way less common than the other meaning. In the part of the South where I was raised fizzy non-alcoholic drinks were called 'soft drinks' and a soda was a soft drink poured over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. In my part of the South, fizzy soft drinks were 'Cokes' (regardless of the kind or brand of fizzy soft drink), and a Coke poured over a scoop of ice cream was a 'float'. In the US, or at least California, to prepare something hastily would be to knock out. I thought y'all :) might enjoy this website. I know I spent literally hours exploring it. http://www.pbs.org/speak/ ok, all you Brits...tell me exactly what a 'pudding' is made of. I know it's not the same thing as what we Americans call pudding (I'm guessing sort what you'd call a custard; although where I come from pudding and custard are NOT the same--I'm not sure of the difference --I THINK pudding is cooked on top of the stove, and a custard is cooked and then baked; obviously I'm not much of a cook). Anyway, I read about 'pudding' in British books and sometimes it makes me think it's like a cake, or sometimes maybe just a generic term for 'dessert'...am I close?? I've wondered about this for years. At Christmas we sing/talk/read about 'hasty pudding' and 'plum pudding', but I don't know any American who has actually had one at Christmas dinner. Pudding can mean a number of things. Generally it is used as a synonym for dessert (so you are spot on there), but there are also a wide range of savoury and sweet puddings. It originated as a word for a type of sausage - and that is still in use today in black pudding (a blood sausage). It was then extended to other foods that were boiled in a bag, and from then extended further to the dessert course. Quite a number of puddings are made with suet pastry from steak and kidney pudding (which we eat for main course) to stuff like jam roly poly or spotted dick (which are eaten for dessert). In the dessert course the pudding is often served with custard - and I know of no-one who would call just custard a pudding. Maybe worth adding that custard in Britain usually means the liquid variety - a hot, suspiciously yellow, milk and cornflour sauce that you pour over a dessert. At school, every dessert we got had custard with it, and there would be Machiavellian manoeuvres to get (or to avoid getting) the yucky skin from the top of the jug. If you make it yourself rather than out of a packet (a practice that pretty much died out during WWII), it generally has egg-yolks and vanilla in it. If it's set solid then it's usually called something else, according to the way it's served - custard tart, blancmange, quiche, trifle, etc. ETA: see Wikipedia on Bird's custard powder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard_powder #309- Interesting that Wisconsin is split between soda and pop. I live in southeast Wisconsin, 'soda country'. And Lol, they call them carriages on Amazon.co.uk. Bless you, thorold. I've been wondering about blancmange ever since I read Little Women when I was 11. (And man, was that a long time ago!) I'm not really sure how to try to explain American puddings and custard to nonAmericans! on another note, back to American colloquialisms...I'm from Missouri and even THEY can't agree how to pronounce it! I pronounce it 'Missou-ree'; my parents say 'Missou-rah'. I recently saw on tv during that rural residents are of the 'rah' bent; city dwellers 'ree'. I dunno...my parents were born/raised in rural area. I was an army brat so maybe that's it. Also, when I went to college I tried very hard to lose my 'southern' accent. Which is pretty funny now, because I've lived in Texas the last 25 years, and now am told that I 'talk funny' by my Ozarkian relatives! (Southern Missourians also say 'warsh', and 'you'ns') I'm not really sure how to try to explain American puddings and custard to nonAmericans! on another note, back to American colloquialisms...I'm from Missouri and even THEY can't agree how to pronounce it! I pronounce it 'Missou-ree'; my parents say 'Missou-rah'. I recently saw on tv during that rural residents are of the 'rah' bent; city dwellers 'ree'. I dunno...my parents were born/raised in rural area. I was an army brat so maybe that's it. Also, when I went to college I tried very hard to lose my 'southern' accent. Which is pretty funny now, because I've lived in Texas the last 25 years, and now am told that I 'talk funny' by my Ozarkian relatives! (Southern Missourians also say 'warsh', and 'you'ns') sorry, I don't know why it posted twice! Throw in boiled custard and you can be really confusing... >324 theexiledlibrarian: Southern Missourians also say 'warsh', and 'you'ns' What, did they all move out there from Pittsburgh? In another forum, someone said there are no dialects in American English, only accents. Is this true? To clarify the terms: Wikipedia on Accent (linguistics) and Wikipedia on Dialect Do New York English and Californian English only differ in pronunciation? No differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, like for example between Scots and Cockney, or Bavarian and Saxonian? >329 GirlFromIpanema: There are dialects. African American Vernacular and Cajun English, for example. Over my lifetime, I think that US dialects have become less apparent between regions but they are still there. Accents are still very different between regions but also have become less noticeable. Someone in another thread (or maybe it was this one) provided a link to 'Do you speak American?' on the PBS website. This page deals with the varieties of American English. From that page: Social scientists estimate the number of U.S. dialects range from a basic three - New England, Southern and Western/General America - to 24 or more . Some researchers go so far as to suggest it's actually impossible to count the number of dialects in the United States because under a loose definition of the term, thousands of cities, towns and groups have their own varieties or dialects. The authors of American English explain it this way: When people ask us what we do for a living, and we reply that we study American English dialects, one of the next questions inevitably is, 'how many dialects are there?' This question is surprisingly difficult to answer, despite the fact that researchers have been investigating language variation in America for at least a century. Discrete boundaries between dialects are often difficult to determine, since dialects share many features with one another. In addition, even the smallest dialect areas are characterized by incredible heterogeneity. Speakers use different language forms - or identical forms at different percentage rates or in different ways - based not only on where they live but also on such factors as their social class, their ethnicity, their gender, and even whether or not they view their home region as a good place to live. Further, different dialect boundaries may emerge depending on which level of language we chose to focus on. - Walt Wolfram & Natalie Schillings-Estes 328 Well, in my neck of the woods (s.e. Missouri, between St. Louis and the Bootheel), it was settled early mainly by the French, and then many English/Catholics from Maryland. Throw in some Scots Irish from the Appalachians, a few Germans, intermarry them all and you got yourself a dialect that is different than even St. Louis (an hour north). I went to college in Columbia (3 hours northwest), and was told I had southern accent. I only visit about once a year now, and have noticed that a lot of the accents/dialects have changed, due to tv and 'furreners' moving in (anybody from further away than St. Louis!) I imagine. I kinda miss it...the older generation still has it (my dad says sodypop). My grandmother used to call irises 'flags'; my aunt was 'Aint', and she was 'sure proud to see me' whenever I came to visit. I now have been in Texas long enough that it's 'ya'll' instead of 'you'ins', which tickles my family no end. But when I sometimes slip a 'you'ins' in, usually when I'm excited, my husband just smiles. Are those US dialects very different from each other? I have only heard American English on the CNN News and in films, so... To give you an idea what 'very different' means to me: When I moved away from home to work on a farm 500km south of my home town, for the first two weeks I was unable to make out what my boss was saying to me in his true Hessian dialect. :-). It wasn't just pronuciation; but completely different vocabulary and even different grammar. #324 and others, American Pudding is Angel delight. # 334 'Ish bin zwoi und swansish'. Lol (I'm not really) I loved Hessisch Deutsch, I've always had a problem making the hard ich sound correctly. >334 GirlFromIpanema: African American Vernacular has its own grammar. Cajun English is almost unintelligible to me. (I'm from the Chicago area.) There are also creoles like Chinglish and Spanglish in areas where large amounts of immigrants speaking Chinese and Spanish have moved into, and there's Gullah in the coastal region of South Carolina and Georgia. Speaking of Gullah, there was recently (within the past 10 years) a lot of excitement over a Gullah translation of the new testament someone released. Here's a sample from Romans: Paul Letta Ta Dem een Rome 1 From Paul wa da saab Jedus Christ, a A postle wa God done pick, an he gil me orda fa go tell people da Good Nyews wa God sen. A Paul da write ta oona. Quotation from Gullah NT website: 'Fa de fus time, God taak to me de way I taak.' My 80+ year-old father has always pronounced the Aloha State 'Ha-WAH-yuh,' as did his parents. I have never heard anyone else pronounce it that way. Have any of you? >334 GirlFromIpanema: No, not really. I'd say 99% of Americans can understand each other. It's mostly accent differences ('creek' vs 'crick' for creek, 'ahhnt' vs 'andnt' for aunt) and the occasional odd regional word like coke/pop/soda or rubber/rubber band/elastic or bubbler/water fountain. >340 Morphidae: Hmmm, I don't know. As a life-long Minnesotan whose been lucky enough to travel pretty extensively around the country, I must say that sometimes I can still have a difficult time with a 'deep south' southern accent. It's not always noticeable in a mixed group - with people from various areas of the country - but when I'm the only northerner and the people I'm with really get going with stories and such, the accents get deeper and I definitely have to listen harder. #336: ' 'Ish bin zwoi und swansish'. Lol ' Well, if someone's talking Standard German with a Hessian accent, yes :-). Easy peasy. The Real Stuff: 'Eish saen tsvaa'n'tsvanzisch'. Compare to my local dialect: 'Ik bün tveh un tvinnich.' (spelling anglicised) *huh? what?* :-) Gullah definitely seem a case where speakers of 'middle of the road' American English would experience the same problems! I had never heard of that dialect before and went to google it. Interesting! Hey, GirlFromIpanema: I may call upon your language skills sometime. I have some little things from my husband's parents that I can't get translated. Apparently the family emigrated from some part of Germany that doesn't speak the standard German. One year we had three foreign exchange students from different parts of Germany and NONE of them could read any of it. What I have are some little framed mottos and a fancy wedding or christening certificate - things like that. One year my in-laws took a European tour, and Mom couldn't wait until they got to Germany so she could speak her childhood language. When they got there, no one understood her. She was so disappointed. She talked about it for years. I have a Dialect Map of North America published by the National Geographic Society in their December 2005 issue. It lists the following dialects: Newfoundland, Canadian, Canadian Maritime, Eastern New England, Northwest New England, Southwest New England, Rhode Island (?), New Yorkese, Middle Atlantic, Western Pennsylvanian, Northern, Inland Northern, North Central, Midland, Southern, Charleston (S.C.), Floridian, Inland Southern, Texas Southern and Western. The map also states that 'Far from fading away, dialects are becoming more pronounced'. This map comes from a work called The Atlas of North American English by W. Labov, S. Ash & C. Boberg. Some of the more interesting features of the map are the fact that the largest city in Florida, Jacksonville, does not use the Floridian dialect. There is a long narrow corridor of the Inland Northern dialect between Chicago and Saint Louis. The Texas Southern dialect is used only in north central Texas. Western Florida speaks Southern rather than Floridian. The smallest dialect zones are Rhode Island and Charleston, and the largest are the Western dialect zone and Canadian. Some states include three dialect zones. These include Oklahoma, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois and Ohio. The map does not include Alaska or Hawaii. #344 I think like some of the others I would call them accents not dialects. In a dialect I would expect to see a noticeable number of dialect words (words not used outside that area) and modifications to grammar. 346TradeSkillsLLCThis message has been flagged by multiple users and is no longer displayed (show) Use the audio files of the art of war and 48 Laws of Power explained audio books and put them so there are 200 to 500 tracks of those audio books and put them in a playlist so I can put it in MP3 or Podcast with random repeat playback, possibly with playspeed modifications to longer or shorter tracks. So my question is which is the right 4, 5, or 8 CD version of the art or war that has many audio tracks like the 'book' was originally written: IE: a series of loose notes one or three lines long, which also means not a WHOLE BOOK meant to be read Cover to Cover but random notes to be applied in sections of battle plans with modern measurements. The transmission of sociology based standardized measured units of demographics data mining for education automation is not socialism nor grid supercomputer cloud OS. Chinese Military Intelligence Genius Clone Virtual OS wiki Augmented Reality immersion life energy word abacus transmission measurements. The Wheel of (ethics) Buddhist Terms Poster touch screen video context immersion selection tool. Bamboo. http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/the-ultimate-student-resource-list.html http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/80-how-to-sites-worth-bookmarking.html http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/the-80-best-lifehacks-of-2008.html http://delicious.com/TradeSkillsLLC?setcount=100 Go to Proz.com, register for free, then you can ask 5 questions a day, 20 a week in any language pair. Choose English-English and ask whatever you wish, also about regional differences. The people who answer those questions are very professional. 344 This is a link to a simpler version of dialects (really accents) in the United States: http://www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/AmDialMap.html There are notes that explain some of the differences between speech in the same 'dialect' area (such as Rhode Island). The author says nothing about Coastal Southern, and its hard to believe that people in eastern North Carolina and South Texas speak the same accent -- the latter has a considerable Mexican influence. Jacksonville, FL is more southern than Floridian (I lived there many years ago). Newfoundlanders do not sound Canadian, and a fair number of word differences possibly makes this a true dialect (haven't lived there in years either, so examples don't jump to mind). I read somewhere that some Rhode Islanders are now pronouncing the word 'area' more like 'avia' (the first a in avia is a long a). Area is usually pronounced in the U.S. with an r coloring on the initial a. Even though I've heard this avia, it seems to me to be a minority pronounciation. I have been reading 'Little Women' and am confused by the term 'Rubbers' mentioned several times. 'Amy, fretting over lessons she had not completed and rubbers she could not find, proceeded to wail her complaints to all who would listen' 'The ‘post office’ soon became a capital little institution and the repository of transfer for such things as “…tragedies and cravats, poetry and pickles, garden seeds and long letters, music and gingerbread, rubbers, invitations, scoldings, and puppies.”' 'Meg ran through the entry with a pair of rubbers in one hand and a cup of tea in the other' On reading your post, I presume these must be the old fashioned overboots. But why marmie needed them at the same time as a cup of tea had me baffled. overshoes. yes. I had similar trouble with gaiters and gumboots. Which I gather are not quite the same thing. Oh, and Wellingtons. >349 joalcott: & 350 overshoes ... yes and no! The first use of rubbers quoted above is much more likely to be referring to erasers than overshoes. The only reason I'm hedging here is because Alcott is an American author and the use of rubbers versus erasers is a standard Brit v. Yank thing ... so one would have expected Alcott to use the latter term here rather than the former. However, Little Women is set in Concord, MA (if I remember correctly) and MA culturally is probably the most 'British' American state, so I surmise that 19th century residents of MA may have favored (clung to?) some of the old British terms and expressions in preference to their newer American counterparts. WRT the second usage of rubbers quoted above, given such a diverse list of objects in which they are included it could be referring to either erasers or overshoes, though I still suspect it is the former. Finally, the third use of the term quoted above would certainly seem to favor the latter since she is carrying a pair of them ... erasers don't necessarily come in pairs while overshoes usually do so. Why either of the items would be required with a cup of tea I haven't the foggiest idea. :( Of course, Miss Alcott may have been having the last laugh at the expense of all of us and was actually referring to condoms in all three cases. One never knows what effect hanging around with all those Boston Irish immigrants might have had on her ... maybe in the end she too was simply taking the mickey! Condoms weren't made of rubber back then. I thought of erasers too, but they didn't seem to fit the context. Are there any places we could look? Robert Which brings us neatly to Wellingtons which are (generally) knee high rubber rain boots. Ah. Thank you. >353 Sodapop: Ah yes, but wellies don't really fit the context here either, now do they? If you don't believe me, try running with a pair of wellies in one hand and in the other hand a cup full of hot tea balanced on a saucer with a spoon next to it and see exactly how far you get before you drop the spoon and then spill all the tea. :) However, if you search the Project Gutenberg text of Little Women for all references to 'rubbers' you'll find quite a few more of them than just the three originally quoted, and in most of the cases footwear does seem to be implied whenever Alcott uses this term. But it is neither knee-length wellies nor anything equivalent to the modern day transparent overshoes to which she is making reference. Instead the context suggests that 'rubbers' are a sort of feminine leisure shoe - the equivalent of, say, bedroom slippers today. They are what Victorian women slipped on when they were NOT wearing their outdoor shoes, riding boots, or dancing shoes, etc. I get the impression they are more like what we call moccasins today, or what the British call plimsolls. Obviously the first ones introduced were made of rubber - or a stretchy rubber-like fabric - so they were accordingly called rubbers. But then again, so were many other early products of that era that were manufactured out of rubber ... for example, early carriage wheel coverings (what we now call tires) were also called rubbers. If you search around in Google using terms like 'Victorian footwear' you'll find references to late nineteenth and early twentieth century shoe manufacturers such as Kent & Hickey or I. van Baalen who advertized themselves as purveyors of 'Boots, Shoes and Rubbers' (for example, click on this link). For 'rubbers' in the foregoing just read 'slippers' (but NOT the kind that Cinderella lost at the ball on the stroke of midnight ... those slippers were really high heeled pumps ... and I mean American pumps, not those things the Brits call plimsoles which are really what late 19th century Americans called rubbers). Most confusing! :( Is it only in Australia that knee-high rain boots are called 'gum-boots', and that what the Brits call 'plimsoles' are called 'sandshoes'? What do USAns call plimsoles/sandshoes? (Haven't read all previous posts here.) Thrin, in Victoria sandshoes are also called runners. Re Alcott, I always thought rubbers were galoshes. Thanks pamelad. Come to think of it, I have heard the term 'runners' here in NSW too. And what's the difference between 'plimsoles'/'sandshoes' and 'trainers'? Plimsoles (as far as the UK is concerned) are the basic gym-shoe kids used to wear for doing PE at school - no extra padding, shock absorbency, air pumps etc - always came in either plain white or plain black. Trainers are more the kind of thing that in the US are called sneakers - Adidas, Sketchers etc. It can also be a generational thing - elderly people tend to call all 'sport' shoes plimsoles (or plimsolls) whereas younger people who don't remember plimsoles call them all trainers (for training in, obviously). Thanks Booksloth. So I used to wear sandshoes/runners in Australia, then I went to live in England and I wore plimsolls, now (back in Australia) I wear trainers - occasionally - I think.... or do I wear sneakers? I think I need to lie down. There were (are?) a lot of different names for plimsolls depending on where you lived. I've heard others call them pumps and daps. A quick search also reveals gollies, gutties, galoshes. Sand-shoes is also used although mainly in the north-east of England. #355 No but then I was referring to 350 not 349 :-) Heck I couldn't run with the wellies on carrying the tea and not spill it. Plimsolls/plimsoles definitely as #359 described a very thin soled, flat, black shoe that we wore for PE at school. What English kids call trainers are generically called tennis shoes around here. (Whether they are used for tennis or not - usually not) Tennis shoes or sneakers are what you wear around for school, or everyday use. Similar shoes you keep especially for your gym sport are specifically called basketball shoes, volleyball shoes, or whatever. This is, of course, in addition to the kids who wear boots for everyday. That gets into a whole different classification - walking boots, ropers, etc. I remember visiting New York City about 10 years ago, and being told by a native that I had a 'Western accent.' A man said that I sounded like 'a cowboy,' and that I had a drawl. I replied: 'I... wait, what? Really?' I heard from another NYC native that I sounded like I was 'from the news.' I'm a Seattle, Washington native. #363 Mary, you've heard me speak; do I have a drawl? I do sometimes say 'crick,' an inheritance from my Montana-raised father. And I think of 'Crick' as a countrified Southern word! I always picture Alcott's rubbers as the type of rain boots that schoolkids wore around 1950. They were just tall enough to protect the shoes and socks. Did the cup of tea have to be balanced on a saucer? monohex: No, I don't remember an accent. As a Canadian neighbor, you speak with less of a twang than I do. I lived in Montana from ages 7-11. My friends there said I talked through my nose on words like 'down' and 'brown.' The closer you get to Canada, the less you do that, I guess. If you sound like you're from the news - you probably sounded pretty generic to the person who said that. Hmm. When I'm very relaxed or comfortable, my speech becomes exaggerated- that is, drawn out in some way. More regional. From what region, I couldn't say. I think my inner monologue has a southern accent. plimsoll = rubber soled canvas topped sport shoe (think Sperry Topsider) a rubber (sglr.) = an eraser, came into common usage in late 1700s, early 1800s...first ones were made of vegetable gum rubbers (pl.) = originally unlined boots for rainwear which slipped over men's shoes; later came to be the short form for rubber boots - rubbers came into being later 1800s rubber boots = Wellies or Wellingtons - not invented until 1853 after vulcanisation and then worn as a farm working boot, based on the leather style originated by the Duke of Wellington I think it's highly unlikely that any of the women in 1868 Little Women would have worn rubber boots. Their boots would have been made of leather, treated with dubbin-like fat substances to waterproof them. So my money is on erasers. >352 Mr.Durick: 'Condoms weren't made of rubber back then.' Yes, you're probably right. Sheesh, now I think about it, it's much more likely that all three sisters were on the pill instead. :( >368 tiffin: 'I think it's highly unlikely that any of the women in 1868 Little Women would have worn rubber boots. Their boots would have been made of leather, treated with dubbin-like fat substances to waterproof them.' I think it even more unlikely that any of these women wore rubber overshoes either ... since these are a 20th century innovation that came about many years after spats and gaiters were used for such purposes. Heck, even spats were only invented in the early 20th century (possibly very late 19th century). If the Alcott sisters had rubber overshoes (as per posts #349 and #350) available to them in 1868 why would spats have ever been introduced into all the armies of the dominant world powers over 30 years later? And yes, I agree, those Alcott women also did not have Paddington Bear type galoshes (as per posts #357 and #365) available to them ... as appealing as that concept may be to fans of stowaway Peruvian bears reading Little Women in the 21st century. 'So my money is on erasers.' But as was pointed out by Robert in post #352 'erasers' do not fit the context of the third quoted instance of 'rubbers' in post #349. Nor does it fit the context of the other examples of Alcott's use of the term 'rubbers' in Little Women that were not quoted in that post. That first quoted instance ('Amy, fretting over lessons she had not completed and rubbers she could not find') is very misleading. The mention of lessons seems to suggest schoolrooms and hence pencils and writing pads and thus erasers. But nearly all Alcott's other uses of the term 'rubbers' imply footwear by their context. Here is a short passage containing two other uses of the term that was not quoted in post #349 ... ___________ 'I've sprained my ankle. That stupid high heel turned and gave me a sad wrench. It aches so, I can hardly stand, and I don't know how I'm ever going to get home,' she said, rocking to and fro in pain. 'I knew you'd hurt your feet with those silly shoes. I'm sorry. But I don't see what you can do, except get a carriage, or stay here all night,' answered Jo, softly rubbing the poor ankle as she spoke. 'I can't have a carriage without its costing ever so much. I dare say I can't get one at all, for most people come in their own, and it's a long way to the stable, and no one to send.' 'I'll go.' 'No, indeed! It's past nine, and dark as Egypt. I can't stop here, for the house is full. Sallie has some girls staying with her. I'll rest till Hannah comes, and then do the best I can.' 'I'll ask Laurie. He will go,' said Jo, looking relieved as the idea occurred to her. 'Mercy, no! Don't ask or tell anyone. Get me my rubbers, and put these slippers with our things. I can't dance anymore, but as soon as supper is over, watch for Hannah and tell me the minute she comes.' 'They are going out to supper now. I'll stay with you. I'd rather.' 'No, dear, run along, and bring me some coffee. I'm so tired I can't stir.' So Meg reclined, with rubbers well hidden, and Jo went blundering away to the dining room, which she found after going into a china closet, and opening the door of a room where old Mr. Gardiner was taking a little private refreshment. Making a dart at the table, she secured the coffee, which she immediately spilled, thereby making the front of her dress as bad as the back. ___________ Meg has sprained her ankle dancing in her 'slippers' (which Jo calls 'silly shoes') so she asks Jo to go fetch her 'rubbers' and to put her 'slippers' aside with their other things because she can no longer continue to dance on her sprained ankle. Meg replaces her 'dancing slippers' with her 'rubbers' and reclines (Alcott doesn't say on what) with them well hidden - which to me implies her knees are bent so that her dress can be pulled down over her feet, or even that she is kind of kneeling (with her legs tucked back under her) on the floor or sofa on which she reclines. Note that the term 'slipper' here refers to the same kind of high-heeled dancing shoe as Cinderella's infamous glass slipper, and so the 'slippers' Meg removes would therefore look something like this, while the 'rubbers' she replaces them with would look like what? Galoshes? Overshoes? Erasers? I don't think so! Ask yourself what kind of shoes you would slip on if you desired comfort for your sprained ankle? And that you might also feel were a little chintzy (WRT the rest of your dancing outfit) so that you would feel the need to hide them from view while still out in public wearing a formal ball gown. >365 hailelib: 'Did the cup of tea have to be balanced on a saucer?' Hmmm, I'm not sure whether you are asking why I presume there had to be a saucer that went along with the cup of tea Meg was carrying, or whether you are simply pointing out rhetorically that running with just a cup full of hot tea in one hand and a pair of wellies in the other is almost as impossible to achieve without spilling any, as doing same when the full cup of hot tea is carried instead balanced on a saucer. If the latter, I quite agree. I can't even walk slowly from my kitchen to my desk and PC while carrying a mug full of hot Java without somehow also managing to slop some of it down the legs of my jeans or over my feet. If I think about it, I probably should wear gaiters and spats when I drink coffee at my PC. :( Wait a mo, I think I'm now beginning to understand why Meg may indeed have been carrying rubber overshoes or galoshes along with that cup of tea! My father, who was born in Scotland, always called his rubber overshoes 'Rubbers'. #369: well the whole quotation helps...so no, not erasers hehe....I can only think that it would be a kind of bedroom slipper of some sort, with a rubber sole? The (brief) research I did said that rubber overshoes were invented in the late 1800s. Galoshes (rubber overshoes with zippers) were created...when...in the 20s? My dad certainly wore them in the 40s (and yes, jimthomson, he was a Scot and called them rubbers as well). Somehow Meg's footwear eludes us, although I do like the image of black boots with orange toes under her evening dress. >372 tiffin: 'I can only think that it would be a kind of bedroom slipper of some sort, with a rubber sole?' Which is exactly the same conclusion to which I came. And what would we call such footwear today? Whichever term you choose to describe them - moccasins, plimsolls, pumps, sandshoes or slippers - it will have considerably conflicting connotations in different areas of the world. Or even just the same area ... because Americans use both the terms 'slippers' and 'pumps' to refer to very formal high-heeled shoes as well lightweight leisure shoes suitable for wear in the bedroom or on the beach. Or which won't tear up the parquet hardwood floors of gymnasiums ... which is why we had to wear plimsolls or pumps for P.E. as schoolchildren. '... although I do like the image of black boots with orange toes under her evening dress.' Yes, yes, yes ... or perhaps something more along the lines of the footwear Olive Oyl used to wear under her long black skirt in the old Popeye cartoons. :) Now I will always picture Meg and Jo at the ball with knobby knees and clunky boots. Thanks!! I spent a goodly chunk of time this afternoon reading this whole thread over again - and being entertained all over again. But I did notice that no one addressed the feature that sets Mr. Coffee apart from regular coffee makers. (See post #1!) Mr. Coffee and other similar makes have a reservoir of water kept steaming hot. When you pour the cold water in, the hot water moves immediately to the coffee filter and the new coffee starts dripping through. Mr. Coffee's main advantage is not having to wait for the water to heat. Fast coffee. Important to a certain segment of our population Rubbish, #13, Vegemite must be FELT, NOTICED, seen at least a quarter of an inck thick. SALT OVERDOSE is required. VEGEMITE is ALL about excess! Your wog 'aussi', bloke, Guido. >375 guido47: Ahhh, now you've gone and taken us in one fell swoop from Paddington Bear galoshing through puddles in red gum boots to his eating Marmite and cheese sarnies instead of his usual marmalade ones (yum). Yes indeedy, guido, Marmite (or, if you insist, even Vegemite) most certainly rules, and like clown makeup, the more thickly it's applied, the more satisfying it is. After all, who can resist an edible yeast extract with the visual properties of an industrial lubricant? I know I can't! But even better still than Marmite (or it's weak Aussie rip-off, Vegemite) is the edible beef extract Bovril - more infallible than the Pope and marmitier than the sword! However, for a couple of years there things looked pretty dire when in 2004 Unilever removed (extracted?) all the beef from this beef extract product thus demoting it down to the mere ranks of just another edible yeast extract of the same ilk as Marmite and Vegemite. Luckily, wiser and saner heads - not to mention saltier tongues - finally prevailed at Unilever and, as soon as the 2004 BSE scare had finally been forgotten, they once more put the extracted beef back into the Bovril beef extract. Yeh! But where was that little old lady from the old Wendy's 'Fluffy Bun' adverts when we really needed her? Or even Walter Mondale for that matter? Yet the big mystery that still remains and continues to baffle all the world's smartest brains is ... how much actual beef is there in Chicken Bovril? I mean to say, shouldn't that product really be called Chickril or something? Or perhaps Henril or Cockril? Now don't let's start the Marmite v Bovril debate! Marmite, obviously - but then I'm a veggie. Vegemite just isn't the same at all. (And even before I was a veggie, it still had to be Marmite!) >377 Booksloth: Oh yes, I quite agree with you. When I think of Vegemite it always reminds me of the placebos they give to volunteers in medical drug evaluations in order to help identify psychological responses to the drug from the true physiological ones. Because in every medical treatment evaluation undertaken there will always be a sizeable percentage of the study group volunteers who are only receiving the placebo that will report the same effects (known as the placebo effect) from taking it as the folk that are taking the actual drug or medication that's being tested. So it appears to me that when it came time to evaluate the effects of yeast extract products on the general public, the Australians were given the placebo Vegemite in order that the results of the evaluation of Marmite on the British consumer could be normalized. It's Gallipoli all over again if you ask me. :) Budweiser beer in America is also a placebo IMO. Because the effects of imbibing Bud are purely psychological ... it has no discernable taste and minimal alcoholic content yet Americans can convince themselves they are having a grand old time when drinking it. Yet what really scares me are the people in Britain that buy imported Bud in Sainsbury's ... WTF is that all about?! IMO that's akin to Brazilians drinking imported ersatz coffee! #378 Although I agree with you that Budweiser is a crap beer (I'm a real ale fan) it does have a reasonable amount of alcohol in it - it is 5% ABV which is pretty normal for bottled beer. Thanks MerryMary for explaining Mr Coffee. Onya Guido. I am here to serve. Coffee. >379 andyl: 'Budweiser is a crap beer' Now, now ... I never actually said that! Let's just say that it's an 'acquired taste' and that you and I have not yet acquired it ... and let's leave it at that. Millions of Americans happily drink Bud every day and they consider it to be the 'King of Beers' - although that claim appears to be based more on market share than minor details such as taste. And far be it for me to point out that millions of flies also gorge themselves on cow patties every day and are equally enamored of their daily diet. :) WRT the alcohol content of Bud, you are correct in stating that is what it claims to be. All I know is that it does not affect me the same way that real beer does. Maybe that's all part of the placebo effect? Dear #376, When I was a young man, in the '60, I once worked for a brewary, CUB , before I was called up for war (thank god I didn't go) The only point I wanted to make was that EVERY week the KRAFT factory would send over a small 'tanker' to collect the 'yeast' left over from the brewing process. This became Vegemite. And having 'scoured' the vats inside. Scarrey! I do know the scent/smell well. Guido. Edited to add my name. | Group: Book talk227,353 messages This group does not accept members. AboutThis topic is not marked as primarily about any work, author or other topic. TouchstonesWorks
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