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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: What's strange about the British?
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Amphibalus
Cloak of anonymity
# 5351
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Posted
'appen.
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I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain
He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook’s
Going to get a big dish of beef chow mein. (Warren Zevon)
Posts: 1471 | From: Home of Ronnie Radford's boot | Registered: Dec 2003
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The Bede's American Successor
Curmudgeon-in-Training
# 5042
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Posted
Taking notes from this thread, as there is a chance, still remote at this point--but the recruiter sounded upbeat--that I will be taking new employment that might require me to travel to London this summer.
Remember not to ask where the University is, or to snap pictures of the natives in their local plummage eating dinner. Only talk on the train to make sure one is on the correct one, or when things have gone terribly wrong. Practice understatement.
Now, how do I handle not being able to handle caffiene (read: tea)? As much as I like good tea (which around here usually means Canadian), if it isn't decaffinated, I become performance art. Really. I start yelling and screaming at people, which would probably break a few rules about not talking to strangers or practicing understatement.
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This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride of wealth and food in plenty, comfort and ease, and yet she never helped the poor and the wretched.
—Ezekiel 16.49
Posts: 6079 | From: The banks of Possession Sound | Registered: Oct 2003
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Amos
Shipmate
# 44
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Posted
That's okay. You ask for a glass of milk. In a dirty glass.
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At the end of the day we face our Maker alongside Jesus--ken
Posts: 7667 | From: Summerisle | Registered: May 2001
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
We do herb teas in most places in Britain. Fruit, peppermint or camomile. And also caffeine-free coffee. Caffeine-free cola never really caught on. It might still get you some strange looks in some places (Avoid 'caffs', as opposed to cafes, if you can tell the difference?) Have fun.
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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dorcas
Ship's florist
# 4775
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Bede's American Successor:
Taking notes from this thread, as there is a chance, still remote at this point--but the recruiter sounded upbeat--that I will be taking new employment that might require me to travel to London this summer.
And if you're in a public place don't ever ask for the bathroom or, even worse, the restroom - in the latter case, you'll probably be asked if you're allright and would you like a cuppa??
Instead, ask for "the loo", or "the ladies'" or "the gents'"
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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"I love large women - they supply warmth in the winter and shade in the summer!" (With thanks to Gort!)
Posts: 387 | From: The Curry Mile, Manchester | Registered: Jul 2003
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The Bede's American Successor
Curmudgeon-in-Training
# 5042
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Qlib:
We do herb teas in most places in Britain. Fruit, peppermint or camomile. And also caffeine-free coffee. Caffeine-free cola never really caught on. It might still get you some strange looks in some places (Avoid 'caffs', as opposed to cafes, if you can tell the difference?) Have fun.
At least most places in Canada are civilized enough to have decaffinated tea (including Earl Gray, hot). It still tastes better than most anything "south of the border."
So, I take it that England may have decaf coffee, but not decaf tea?
From visits to Canada I had already changed my vocabulary from "rest room" to "wash room." That is, you get fewer unknowing stares asking for a wash room in the US than a rest room in Canada. I see I might have to add a new term to my vocabulary. I promise that if I drink caffinated tea I will need the loo. While screaming at you.
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This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride of wealth and food in plenty, comfort and ease, and yet she never helped the poor and the wretched.
—Ezekiel 16.49
Posts: 6079 | From: The banks of Possession Sound | Registered: Oct 2003
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The Bede's American Successor
Curmudgeon-in-Training
# 5042
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amos:
That's okay. You ask for a glass of milk. In a dirty glass.
To die. Alone.
Excuse me, I thought you were giving Ernest Hemingway's answer.
At least as a resident of Washington state that travelled to Alberta last summer, I don't need to worry about picking up Mad Cow while in England. I can do it right here at home.
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This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride of wealth and food in plenty, comfort and ease, and yet she never helped the poor and the wretched.
—Ezekiel 16.49
Posts: 6079 | From: The banks of Possession Sound | Registered: Oct 2003
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Amos
Shipmate
# 44
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Posted
You did get the allusion, Bede, didn't you?
(It's from 'Road to Utopia' with Bob Hope et al)
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At the end of the day we face our Maker alongside Jesus--ken
Posts: 7667 | From: Summerisle | Registered: May 2001
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Nonpropheteer
6 Syllable Master
# 5053
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Posted
I can't believe this hasn't made it to ten pages yet.
What about "aluminum"? I heard it pronounced recently on the BBC as "al-you-min-ee-um". That's a whole extra syllable, I think. Maybe we can get Mousethief in here to verify that. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Posts: 2086 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Ceesharp
Shipmate
# 3818
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Posted
We give it five syllables because it's spelt "aluminium". And we don't pronounce "nuclear" as "nucular" either.
Posts: 629 | From: West Midlands, UK | Registered: Dec 2002
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Neep
Ship's Meerkat
# 5213
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Nonpropheteer:
I can't believe this hasn't made it to ten pages yet.
What about "aluminum"? I heard it pronounced recently on the BBC as "al-you-min-ee-um". That's a whole extra syllable, I think. Maybe we can get Mousethief in here to verify that.
Ah, American English. So much to answer for.
Internationally impolite as it may perhaps be, I doubt we can find a Brit on this board who'll say that American English is a superior form of language to proper English... because it isn't! We're right, damn' it!
(pompous limey wipes spittle from mouth)
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"Your standing days are done," I cried, "You'll rally me no more!
I don't even know which side we fought on, or what for."
Posts: 293 | From: A burrow, in England | Registered: Nov 2003
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The Undiscovered Country
Shipmate
# 4811
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ship's Meerkat:
quote:
Originally posted by Nonpropheteer:
I can't believe this hasn't made it to ten pages yet.
What about "aluminum"? I heard it pronounced recently on the BBC as "al-you-min-ee-um". That's a whole extra syllable, I think. Maybe we can get Mousethief in here to verify that.
Ah, American English. So much to answer for.
Internationally impolite as it may perhaps be, I doubt we can find a Brit on this board who'll say that American English is a superior form of language to proper English... because it isn't! We're right, damn' it!
(pompous limey wipes spittle from mouth)
Bill Bryson's books 'Mother Tongue' and 'Made in America' are very accessible guides to the answer to this and, as ever, the truth is rather more complex than British right/Americans wrong (or vice-versa)
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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man adapts the world to himself. Therefore all hope of progress rests with the unreasonable man.
Posts: 1216 | From: Belfast | Registered: Aug 2003
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I continually strike up conversations on, or waiting for, various forms of transport. By these means, you frequently learn valuable local information if you are the tourist, or impart it if you are the resident.
Since I live in a city where every bus is clogged with puzzled map-porers, dragging suitcases the size of sideboards, I have ample opportunities. The other day I was directing an American - as it happened - couple as to when to get off the bus for their intended destination.
Me: 'It's the next stop'.
Wife: 'Thank you!'
Husband: 'Did she say the next stop?' Looks at map'Maybe we should stay on until the one after'.
Wife: 'We'll maybe take the stop after'
Me: 'That stop is half a mile further. See that big domed building? That's where you're going. The next stop is directly opposite it'.
Eventually I persuaded them.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I continually strike up conversations on, or waiting for, various forms of transport. By these means, you frequently learn valuable local information if you are the tourist, or impart it if you are the resident.
Sometimes it's the other way round. In my time helping bemused tourists in Oxford, I've learnt that the University is a single building, that we have a St Edward's Market, that what I always thought was the New Bodleian Library is in fact a college (I must have heard that at least five times), and that you don't go down St Aldates to get to Christ Church. I spent five minutes trying to tell a disbelieving German tourist that whoever had constructed his map had mixed up the labels for Magdalen and Christ Church which are at different ends of the city, but it sounded implausible even to me.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Moth
Shipmate
# 2589
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Posted
I work in a touristy area of London, and specialise in my quick, five-minute course in "Most cost-effective tickets to purchase for the London Transport System, with particular reference to how to get them out of the Docklands Light Railway Ticket Machine". It's a little public service I run!
Like bb, I also talk to people on trains and buses if I feel so inclined. Mostly that's because I'm practising for my eccentric old age, but partly it's because I'm quite nosey. Nearly everyone will talk back, and if they don't I always have a book handy to read. Mad Old Lady on the Bus is quite a fun game to play!
I think we're not really as buttoned up as we make out, but we do give off more subtle signs of pleasure or displeasure than seems to be the norm with other nationalities. I remember my father describing a situation where he was wiring up an Italian restaurant (he was an electrician until he retired). They were annoying the hell out of him, changing their minds about what they wanted, not being there to let him in when they said they would, etc. He expressed his annoyance in the traditional British reserved fashion, to no effect. When he finally lost his temper, threw down his tools and shouted at them, they all got on much better. They'd apparently not realised how cross he'd been before!
As for decaffeinated tea, you can certainly buy it in supermarkets, but if you ask for it in a caff, they'll tell you there's "no call for it"!
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"There are governments that burn books, and then there are those that sell the libraries and shut the universities to anyone who can't pay for a key." Laurie Penny.
Posts: 3446 | From: England | Registered: Apr 2002
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Cod
Shipmate
# 2643
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Posted
One characteristic of British people that friends of mine have often complained to me about is that they won't say what they mean. Implication is an important part of conversation; it's impolite to give anything straight.
For example, some South Africans moved into a house next door to one occupied by a work colleague, and being normal Saffie men they stayed up late to watch rugby, drink lager, eat copious amounts of meat and talk loudly. After a few nights of this my work colleague knocked on the door to sort it out with them, which he did by mentioning that they were staying up very late and making a bit of noise.
'Yes' they said, and completely failed to get the message, assuming that their neighbour didn't mind.
Posts: 4229 | From: New Zealand | Registered: Apr 2002
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Sine Nomine*
Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 3631
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Posted
My uncle by marriage is English. He does have the rather strange habit of walking into a room he knows is full of people, looking vaguely surprised to see his in-laws in their own living room, and then walking out again without saying a word.
Of course that might just be him rather than a national characteristic.
Posts: 10696 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cms:
We give it five syllables because it's spelt "aluminium".
In America we give it four syllables because it's spelt "aluminum".
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Sine Nomine*
Ship's backstabbing bastard
# 3631
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cms:
We give it five syllables because it's spelt "aluminium".
So how do you pronounce "Cholmondeley"? It's got four syllables.
Posts: 10696 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Seth
Shipmate
# 3623
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Posted
![[Overused]](graemlins/notworthy.gif)
I'm going to contadict Ship's Meerkat and
say,as a Brit,that I prefer American English..
It's both more creative,IMO(African-American,'buffyspeak')and,so I hear,more archaic than British English,at least in Appalachia..
Posts: 566 | From: Wiltshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2002
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Seth
Shipmate
# 3623
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Posted
I made a rather academic point badly then,but kudos to Sine ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Posts: 566 | From: Wiltshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2002
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krill
Shipmate
# 6537
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Posted
What I want to know is if yall can type without an accent, why can't yall talk without one ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
[ 06. June 2004, 12:06: Message edited by: krill ]
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I knew more when first I came to this life, this not a search for knowledge, but a journey of rediscovery
Posts: 78 | From: Houston, Texas, USA | Registered: May 2004
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Boopy
Shipmate
# 4738
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amos:
In the UK carwashing is a sacrament which another cannot perform on your behalf. Up and down the country, every weekend--sometimes every day, if they get home early--Britons are out on the street with hose and bucket and sponge, various bottles of simonizing solutions, and the family vacuum. There appears to be great shame attached to the dirtiness of the family car, and, indeed, I have noticed Britons who wash their cars more than they appear to wash themselves. Please, can someone explain this phenomena?
Er....to some in the UK, carwashing is a sacrament not performed at all. One view is that washing one's car is a naff and unnecessary use of time; I'd put it on a par with polishing the pebbles on a gravel path. Some of us *like* their little old cars to be grubby, and held together by the moss in the windows.
We might wipe the windscreen with an oily rag once a year, if pushed.;D
Posts: 1170 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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JellyHead
# 3880
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kenwritez:
A previous poster talked about different pubs have different cultures. What would be some examples of this?
- Faux-chintz: the default setting. A sombre badly lit affair in maroon velvet, inhabited by one man and his whippet.
- The Real-Ale Experience: Has evolved from the faux-chintz by removing the paisley carpet and polishing the floor-boards. An extension to the bar allows it to serve 8 cask ales, 14 tap bitters, 4 stouts and 1 larger-substitute. Comes complete with two bearded stout fellows who can converse at length about yeast cultures and home-brew.
- The Country-Dinner: having passed through the real-ale stage this pub has evolved into a gourmet's delight. Cooking 'home' made food like the real-ale pie to perfection, which can be followed by an afternoon sunk in a plush leather sofa in-front of an open fire drinking port and smoking cubans. Unfortunately pubs that do this transition have to be far from town centres and bus routes to stop the oiks from coming in. If you can't afford the taxi, they don't wish your custom.
- The Painfully-Hip: For those establishments who wished to throw out their residential man 'n' whippet there has been the move to blue neon-lighting and spiral staircases leading nowhere. Will stock 4 types of larger that all taste recycled, but will be able to manufacture the perfect Manhattan at the drop of a cut-down black straw.
- The 'Weatherspoon-a-like': McDonald's with stuffed animals and weak beer. Venture in at your peril as are inhabited by men who wear shirts with base-ball hats. (Though I'm told this sartorial statement is more acceptable across the pond)
- My Local: includes cricket and Pimm's, and like all great pubs, it's location is a heavily guarded secret.
This list is in no way comprehensive, but should give an indication of the complexities of choosing the 'right' pub on a Friday night (or that matter Tuesday lunch, Thursday evening, or Sunday afternoon).
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One whole cucumber sandwich short of a picnic.
Posts: 308 | From: Up in the treehouse | Registered: Jan 2003
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Peppone
Marine
# 3855
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Posted
Here's another thing they/ we do: stand in doorways. Like, I'm not coming in, I'm not going out, I'm just disturbing you while you're watching the TV and making annoying chit chat along the lines of "Cuppa, anyone? No? Glass of white wine..?"
Look, I'll keep it simple. No-one. Drinks. White. Wine. And. By. The. Way.
I'M! WAAAAATCHIIIIIIING THIIIIIIIIIIS.
(This being Postman Pat in Welsh, very likely.)
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I looked at the wa's o' Glasgow Cathedral, where vandals and angels painted their names,
I was clutching at straws and wrote your initials, while parish officials were safe in their hames.
Posts: 3020 | From: Hong Kong | Registered: Dec 2002
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The Machine Elf
Irregular polytope
# 1622
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:
But I talk to people on trains.
Actually, so do I, but only to foreigners. English people don't talk on the train.
In addition to walking 'in the country' it is also often acceptable to say hello to people who are walking dogs, but only if they're not trying to be 'hard'.
The country walking is quite strongly delimited; every morning I walk to work I pass the same two people going in the other direction. The one I pass whilst still in town says nothing, the one I pass on the mile of country road between my town and the village which I work in says 'good morning'.
TME
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Elves of any kind are strange folk.
Posts: 1298 | From: the edge of the deep green sea | Registered: Oct 2001
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Bede's American Successor:
I see I might have to add a new term to my vocabulary. I promise that if I drink caffinated tea I will need the loo.
Bede: only girls go to the "loo". You need to ask for "the gents".
[ 06. June 2004, 17:20: Message edited by: Jack the Lass ]
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Nonpropheteer
6 Syllable Master
# 5053
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Posted
Would a kind British scholar please help me with my spelling?
My neighbors favorite color is gray.
'nuff said. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Posts: 2086 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
quote:
Originally posted by The Bede's American Successor:
I see I might have to add a new term to my vocabulary. I promise that if I drink caffinated tea I will need the loo.
Bede: only girls go to the "loo". You need to ask for "the gents".
Seriously?
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
Kelly: yes, I'm deadly serious! Girls go to the loo, the ladies, the little girls' room, but if I heard a guy say he was going to "the loo" it would make me stop, just for a split second, and think "did I really just hear that?" It wouldn't cause me hours of angst or anything and I'd forget it instantly, but I would definitely notice it.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
Gee, you learn something new every day...
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Nonpropheteer:
Would a kind British scholar please help me with my spelling?
My neighbors favorite color is gray.
'nuff said.
Never mind the spelling, you missed an apostrophe
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Seth
Shipmate
# 3623
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Posted
I'm not sure,Kelly.'Loo' has no gender specificity for me!
There's definitely gender and class connotations for all these things in this country,though..
Also,in my experience,Americans only tend to close toilet doors when they're using them,whilst Brits are a bit more prissy and prefer to keep them closed at all times.Hence we're much keener on locking toilets when using them!
Posts: 566 | From: Wiltshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2002
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Neep
Ship's Meerkat
# 5213
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Seth:
I'm going to contadict Ship's Meerkat and
say,as a Brit,that I prefer American English..
It's both more creative,IMO(African-American,'buffyspeak')and,so I hear,more archaic than British English,at least in Appalachia..
More archaic? I beg to disagree! Consider the military rank of lieutenant- surely the correct pronunciation (leff-tenant) is more archaic? British culture, on which the language is based, is probably a much better source of the archaic than America; so I reckon we have a good headstart.
As for creativity, I plead ignorance- I'm an engineer. Although I'm not conceding anything yet!
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"Your standing days are done," I cried, "You'll rally me no more!
I don't even know which side we fought on, or what for."
Posts: 293 | From: A burrow, in England | Registered: Nov 2003
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Seth
Shipmate
# 3623
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Posted
Gosh I'm slow-sorry!
i was responding to about 4 posts back..
Posts: 566 | From: Wiltshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2002
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Seth
Shipmate
# 3623
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Posted
I think we're maybe more traditional,meerkat-but for a long time America was rather isolated,so some of their words are our old ones.If you know what I mean...
Posts: 566 | From: Wiltshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2002
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Gracious rebel
Rainbow warrior
# 3523
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Seth:
I'm not sure,Kelly.'Loo' has no gender specificity for me!
There's definitely gender and class connotations for all these things in this country,though..
Also,in my experience,Americans only tend to close toilet doors when they're using them,whilst Brits are a bit more prissy and prefer to keep them closed at all times.Hence we're much keener on locking toilets when using them!
I'm with Jack the Lass - if I heard a bloke refer to the 'loo' I would do a brief doubletake. He's more likely to say gents or bog ... or even toilet!
The thing about doors and locks is interesting. while in the USA I got a bit freaked out by those door locks on toilets that you cannot verify if they are actually locked or not - the lever that operates the lock, also fastens the door, so from inside you cannot try to open the door to check the lock is functioning without, well, opening/unlocking it! This is most disconcerting for a Brit. If I'd known that for an American a closed door meant someone was in it, I guess I may have been a bit happier with this type of lock!!
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Fancy a break beside the sea in Suffolk? Visit my website
Posts: 4413 | From: Suffolk UK | Registered: Nov 2002
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Seth
Shipmate
# 3623
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Posted
Am I making any sense at all? ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
Posts: 566 | From: Wiltshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2002
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Chapelhead*
Ship’s Photographer
# 1143
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ship's Meerkat:
Consider the military rank of lieutenant- surely the correct pronunciation (leff-tenant) is more archaic? British culture, on which the language is based, is probably a much better source of the archaic than America; so I reckon we have a good headstart.
But the British can't agree what is the correct pronunciation. The army says leff-tenant, the navy says loo-tenant.
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Benedikt Gott Geschickt!
Posts: 7082 | From: Turbolift Control. | Registered: Aug 2001
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Ferijen
Shipmate
# 4719
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Posted
Monday last I talked to American tourists on the train from London to Southampton. The conversation started off well 'well, you may have reserved tickets, but because the new trains are less reliable than this 40 year old slam door trains, you won't be able to find Carriage C so you might as well just get on here'. We then talked about where they were going, and I asked what they would recommend if I was visiting the States for 2/3 weeks.
Then the two things which really struck me about American tourists stuck out like a sore thumb.
1. 'The English accent is so cute'.
No it is not. It is different. You cannot describe the speaking tone of anyone above the age of five as 'cute', a word which is should really only be used to describe puppies at the best of times.
2. 'We've been on a cruise (in this case, it is usually a coach tour) around Britain. I love the country... oh, I've been to Cambridge, London, Salisbury, Lands End, Edinburgh and York.'
I know our country could fit into the back road of one of your medium size states, and that distances we would pack provisions for a week for you'd happily drive just to have a picnic, but please do not dare to assume that just because you've been to several (very similar) over touristy cathedral cities, along with London, that you 'know' Britain.
Having said that, the aforementioned visitors were on the whole very nice and generally I talk to and are nice to tourists. I may need the favour returning one day!
Although I suppose those who, standing on Palace green in Durham, asked me where the cathedral was deserve a medal for un-observance.
[ 06. June 2004, 18:13: Message edited by: Ferinjen ]
Posts: 3259 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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Neep
Ship's Meerkat
# 5213
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
But the British can't agree what is the correct pronunciation. The army says leff-tenant, the navy says loo-tenant.
I think the RAF plump for the leff variant, so a technical majority of the British armed forces seem to agree on that. And anyway I'm inclined to side with the army- they're generally scarier in person!
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"Your standing days are done," I cried, "You'll rally me no more!
I don't even know which side we fought on, or what for."
Posts: 293 | From: A burrow, in England | Registered: Nov 2003
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Chapelhead*
Ship’s Photographer
# 1143
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ship's Meerkat:
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
But the British can't agree what is the correct pronunciation. The army says leff-tenant, the navy says loo-tenant.
I think the RAF plump for the leff variant, so a technical majority of the British armed forces seem to agree on that. And anyway I'm inclined to side with the army- they're generally scarier in person!
And what about the Senior Service?
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Benedikt Gott Geschickt!
Posts: 7082 | From: Turbolift Control. | Registered: Aug 2001
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
quote:
'The English accent is so cute'.
No it is not. It is different. You cannot describe the speaking tone of anyone above the age of five as 'cute', a word which is should really only be used to describe puppies at the best of times.
Cute is a massively over-used Americanism, at least in the sense you speak of. Any person of any age and types of looks up to and including professional wrestlers can be cute; anything slightly amusing is cute; any thing -cars, houses, TV shows, national monuments- can be cute. Arrgh!!!
![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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Neep
Ship's Meerkat
# 5213
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
And what about the Senior Service?
Sorry, who? Again, pity a poor ignorant little oik.
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"Your standing days are done," I cried, "You'll rally me no more!
I don't even know which side we fought on, or what for."
Posts: 293 | From: A burrow, in England | Registered: Nov 2003
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Amos
Shipmate
# 44
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Posted
Re. toilet (or loo) doors. My husband, stepsons, and grandson (British every man jack of them) have a disconcerting habit of shutting the door when they have finished having a pee, but leaving it ajar while they're in there. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif) As an American, my assumption is that if the door is slightly ajar the loo is vacant and the door has been left a l'Americaine so that the bashful guest can figure out which room has the porcellain. This has caused much embarrassment over the years.
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At the end of the day we face our Maker alongside Jesus--ken
Posts: 7667 | From: Summerisle | Registered: May 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Lyda Rose
If it's any consolation, we think of Dubya as a cute hoor*
*'term used to describe someone who will do whatever it takes to achieve what they want. Usually a cute hoor will not break the law but it is seen as willing to bend and use the law, use people or use situations to come out on top, by pulling dishonest or misleading stunts en route.'
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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KenWritez
Shipmate
# 3238
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LydaRose:
Cute is a massively over-used Americanism, at least in the sense you speak of. Any person of any age and types of looks up to and including professional wrestlers can be cute; anything slightly amusing is cute; any thing -cars, houses, TV shows, national monuments- can be cute. Arrgh!!!
Isn't she cute when she rants?!
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"The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd." --Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction
My blog: http://oxygenofgrace.blogspot.com
Posts: 11102 | From: Left coast of Wonderland, by the rabbit hole | Registered: Aug 2002
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dorcas
Ship's florist
# 4775
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Bede's American Successor:
So, I take it that England may have decaf coffee, but not decaf tea?
It's ok, Sainsbury's sell Twinings decaffeinated tea!! Earl Grey and Traditional!!
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"I love large women - they supply warmth in the winter and shade in the summer!" (With thanks to Gort!)
Posts: 387 | From: The Curry Mile, Manchester | Registered: Jul 2003
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NO
Shipmate
# 5477
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Posted
Earl Grey tastes like an infusion made from the sweepings of a Guinea Pig hutch
[normal tea, however, I am addicted to ]
[ 06. June 2004, 21:14: Message edited by: Norman the Organ ]
Posts: 1250 | Registered: Feb 2004
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