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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: What's strange about the British?
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Sarkycow
La belle Dame sans merci
# 1012
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lady R of Ashwood:
'How interesting' is also a term of derision, Rat.
But not in USA. And boy did I find this out, when I went over there. I met various American friends of my hostess, who all asked what I'd done and seen and stuff. So I would tell them, talking about the differences, and what I thought of malls and flying and various different things. And they would respond: "How interesting." My hostess dragged me away from the first one, to explain that they really did mean that, before I retorted "Well you fucking asked."
Apparently when Americans say "How interesting" they really do mean that what you are talking about is... well, interesting. They want you to carry on talking. And yet, to me, it came across as a slap in the face putdown!
Ask RuthW ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
quote:
What They Say...What They Mean
Perhaps you would like to think about…/it would be nice if…....This is an order. Do it or be prepared to justify yourself
Ooops. I say this, and assume that it translates across. Guess it doesn't, and people think I actually mean it would be nice if they considered something, but that they don't necessarily have to do it?
Sarkycow
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“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”
Posts: 10787 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
I should have put this in earlier.
There is a certain kind of northerner who prides himself on calling a spade "a spade", but does not realise that in order to call a spade "a spade" you do not have to call it "a bloody shovel".
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Gremlin
Ship's Cryptanalyst
# 129
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Posted
There is yet another use of the word 'chippy' that noone else has mentioned: a chippy is a carpenter (as in chips of wood).
As for a 'chipper' ... nah, that's just some southern softie talk. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
Gremlin
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Too many freaks, not enough circuses.
Ahhh...I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again...
Oh I get it... like humour... but different.
Posts: 5221 | From: Isle of Man | Registered: May 2001
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The Undiscovered Country
Shipmate
# 4811
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Posted
When I started this thread I didn't realise it would attract quite so many posts. 302 in 1 week! Is this a record? No doubt someone out there knows!
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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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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie:
I should have put this in earlier.
There is a certain kind of northerner who prides himself on calling a spade "a spade", but does not realise that in order to call a spade "a spade" you do not have to call it "a bloody shovel".
Jengie
And there are plenty who do not know the difference between a spade and a shovel, whatever the condition of the shovel.
Besides as a Lancashire lad we do not go in for "blunt speaking". If we are ever rude we do so deliberately and never to anyone below the rank of colonel. Those that indulge in "blunt speaking" are attempting to excuse their inability to avoid rudeness at any time, in any circumstances and to anyone whatsoever. Oddly enough, they are so often from Yorkshire. It wasn't the only reason for the Wars of the Roses but it'll do.
We from the western side of the Pennines major in the higher arts such as sarcasm, irony, micky taking and black humour. Oh, and we can't shut up and are a bit daft too.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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RuthW
liberal "peace first" hankie squeezer
# 13
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sarkycow:
I met various American friends of my hostess, who all asked what I'd done and seen and stuff. So I would tell them, talking about the differences, and what I thought of malls and flying and various different things. And they would respond: "How interesting." My hostess dragged me away from the first one, to explain that they really did mean that, before I retorted "Well you fucking asked."
Apparently when Americans say "How interesting" they really do mean that what you are talking about is... well, interesting. They want you to carry on talking. And yet, to me, it came across as a slap in the face putdown!
Ask RuthW
The thing is, if you had just gone with the usual British assumption that Americans don't do irony, you'd have been fine. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Posts: 24453 | From: La La Land | Registered: Apr 2001
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Chapelhead*
Ship’s Photographer
# 1143
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gremlin:
As for a 'chipper' ... nah, that's just some southern softie talk.
I don't think so, Southerners say chippy.
'Chipper' is Strine for 'good', isn't it?
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Benedikt Gott Geschickt!
Posts: 7082 | From: Turbolift Control. | Registered: Aug 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie:
I should have put this in earlier.
There is a certain kind of northerner who prides himself on calling a spade "a spade", but does not realise that in order to call a spade "a spade" you do not have to call it "a bloody shovel".
Jengie
And there are plenty who do not know the difference between a spade and a shovel, whatever the condition of the shovel.
Besides as a Lancashire lad we do not go in for "blunt speaking". If we are ever rude we do so deliberately and never to anyone below the rank of colonel. Those that indulge in "blunt speaking" are attempting to excuse their inability to avoid rudeness at any time, in any circumstances and to anyone whatsoever. Oddly enough, they are so often from Yorkshire. It wasn't the only reason for the Wars of the Roses but it'll do.
We from the western side of the Pennines major in the higher arts such as sarcasm, irony, micky taking and black humour. Oh, and we can't shut up and are a bit daft too.
I am sorry Sioni Sais but I saw the original use of that statement and it was said of a lancashire person, born and bred in Manchester, going to the same church as his parents did, and he was hurtfully blunt to someone of lower social status. Oddly enough he was also a dandy and a ladies man, the type who flirt with old fashioned courtesy. However in arguments he took no prisoner and was unnecessarily hurtful about winning.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Gremlin
Ship's Cryptanalyst
# 129
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Undiscovered Country:
When I started this thread I didn't realise it would attract quite so many posts. 302 in 1 week! Is this a record? No doubt someone out there knows!
I don't know what the record might be, but there have been threads in Hell that have managed pages per day. Especially once Erin gets into her stride! ![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
Gremlin
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Too many freaks, not enough circuses.
Ahhh...I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again...
Oh I get it... like humour... but different.
Posts: 5221 | From: Isle of Man | Registered: May 2001
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John Donne
Renaissance Man
# 220
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
quote:
Originally posted by Gremlin:
As for a 'chipper' ... nah, that's just some southern softie talk.
I don't think so, Southerners say chippy.
'Chipper' is Strine for 'good', isn't it? [/QB]
Well I dunno about that one. I do use it in seriousness at times... however, I think it is more used to humorous effect when one is mimicking a type. Say, transplanted immaculately dressed Englishman who puts on a suit to walk down to the corner shop; straightlaced governess doing time in the outback educating the squattocracy's brats and pining for the Old Country; or your general Miss Marple style old lady.
You know... a bit like it's all jolly hockey sticks.
Posts: 13667 | From: Perth, W.A. | Registered: May 2001
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rosamundi
Ship's lacemaker
# 2495
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
We may have some fun ( Sending you to Stratford E15 to see Shakespeare birthplace, for example ),
That was you, was it? You git, you made me late for work.
And I would just like to point out that to this day my boss does not believe my tale of the American tourist who accosted me and asked for the direction to Anne Hathaway's Cottage.
I live in Chaucer's Stratford:
quote:
And frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly, After the scole of stratford atte bowe,
For frenssh of parys was to hire unknowe.
Not Shakespeare's (Elizbethan upstart that he is...)
Still, at least I now have an encyclopaedic knowledge of how to get from Stratford, East London, to Stratford, Darkest Warwickshire, via public transport.
Deborah
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Ship of Fools flickr group
Posts: 2382 | From: here or there | Registered: Mar 2002
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Ham'n'Eggs
Ship's Pig
# 629
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
Those that indulge in "blunt speaking" are attempting to excuse their inability to avoid rudeness at any time, in any circumstances and to anyone whatsoever. Oddly enough, they are so often from Yorkshire. It wasn't the only reason for the Wars of the Roses but it'll do.
To point out the obvious: the Wars of the Roses were fought between the dynasties of the House of York and the House of Lancaster, which had about as much to do with Yorkshire and Lancashire as Prince Charles does with Cornwall.
If however, you desire a resurgance in hostilities to effect a more specific link between the two counties, then this Yorkie will gladly feast on your derriere in Hell.
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"...the heresies that men do leave / Are hated most of those they did deceive" - Will S
Posts: 3103 | From: Genghis Khan's sleep depot | Registered: Jun 2001
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
rosamundi - I have not ever actually done this. I have ( when I was working in Stratford E15 ) met some tourists who were looking for Shakespeares birthplace.
What they asked me for was a road nome, so it was a leaving comment that I only really heard too late, that it was Shakespeares place they were after.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Coot (such a nice boy)
...straightlaced governess doing time in the outback educating the squattocracy's brats...
Coot, thank you for enriching my vocabulary with the word 'squattocracy'.
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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R.A.M.
Shipmate
# 7390
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Posted
During the first war it was Yorks versus Lancastrian after that it wasn normally House of York versus rebell bits of House of York
for instance Henry Tudor (trad. lancastrain) had the support of the Yorkists and Richard III (trad. Yorkist) although of yorkist blood was only king after doing away with the yorkist heirs to the throne...
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Formerly Real Ale Methodist
Back after prolonged absence...
Posts: 1584 | From: (Sunshine on) Leith | Registered: Jun 2004
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kenwritez:
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!!!
![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
Isn't she cute when she rants?!
Quote from Bull Durham- quote:
Cute? Little puppies are cute. I want to be exotic and mysterious!
![[Razz]](tongue.gif) ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.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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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sarkycow:
quote:
What They Say...What They Mean
Perhaps you would like to think about…/it would be nice if…....This is an order. Do it or be prepared to justify yourself
Ooops. I say this, and assume that it translates across. Guess it doesn't, and people think I actually mean it would be nice if they considered something, but that they don't necessarily have to do it?
Sarkycow
Sarky - you'd have caught me out as well. I always take these phrases to mean suggestions - albeit strong ones, but not definite instructions.
Perhaps that's just me. But then again, when people ask me how I am, I tell them. How the feck are you supposed to know that's not what they mean?
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
If you want an insight into the English ( particularly ), you might want to watch an episode of Top Gear ( TV programme about cars ). In particularly, Jeremy Clarkson.
He is completely un-PC, in particularly, he will be rude to any country making cars. If he were a shipmate, he would last seconds before he so offended some country or other that he was banned.
And yet he is funny, and some of this humour is because we are laughing at ourselves. I wouldn't say that you have to enjoy Top Gear, or even Jeremy, to be English, but an appreciation of why he is funny wil help, I think, to appreciate the English way and approach. Even if you also hate him and his arrogant, opinionated ways.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Young fogey
Shipmate
# 5317
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
If you want an insight into the English ( particularly ), you might want to watch an episode of Top Gear ( TV programme about cars ). In particularly, Jeremy Clarkson.
He is completely un-PC, in particularly, he will be rude to any country making cars. If he were a shipmate, he would last seconds before he so offended some country or other that he was banned.
And yet he is funny, and some of this humour is because we are laughing at ourselves. I wouldn't say that you have to enjoy Top Gear, or even Jeremy, to be English, but an appreciation of why he is funny wil help, I think, to appreciate the English way and approach. Even if you also hate him and his arrogant, opinionated ways.
Like Simon Cowell?
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A conservative blog for peace
Posts: 961 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Wet Kipper
Circus Runaway
# 1654
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Young fogey:
Like Simon Cowell?
not really
Simon Cowell would say that whilst someone's singing was correct -hitting the notes bang on, and having the right timing - it was however too precise, exact, methodical and unemotional.
Jeremy would say that they sang "a bit German"....
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- insert randomly chosen, potentially Deep and Meaningful™ song lyrics here -
Posts: 9841 | From: further up the Hill | Registered: Nov 2001
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Cartmel Veteran
Shipmate
# 7049
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
He is completely un-PC, in particularly, he will be rude to any country making cars. If he were a shipmate, he would last seconds before he so offended some country or other that he was banned.
The irony is that he is really something of a europhile, liking France in particular.
Top Gear these days is pretty much an advert for British laddishness (not necessarily a purely male pursuit) and is as funny as it is informative.
To return to the subject of the Chippy, someone mentioned earlier that it's just fish up north. My experience of Stockport/Manchester/Lancashire is that we usually have a choice of cod, haddock or plaice.
I'm always amused by the variety of pies, there will be a pork pie, steak and kidney etc. And then the wonderful mysterious botulism russian-roulette of the Meat Pie. It's a northern version of Japan's Blow Fish and the lovely greasy little rat's coffin will leave you feeling wonderfully full or in urgent need of the bog. Clearly a food for those that like to live on the edge.
Of course equally important to British quisine is the curry. Essentially an Anglo/Indian menu that took Asian cooking and turned it into an entire branch of food designed for the English palate. One tends to find curry houses being a wonderful place for a romantic meal until last orders, then the drunks come in.
I've reached the age now where I go to the local curry house for a romantic meal more than I do for a drunken game of popadom frisbee. In my youth I followed the male tradition of 10 pints of bitter followed by the hottest curry on the menu, as I've got older I go for the one with the most subtle blend of spices. I still order lager with it though, unless with the girlfriend.
[ 14. June 2004, 18:29: Message edited by: Rex Mundi ]
Posts: 1041 | From: Dorset | Registered: May 2004
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
Rex Mundi - yes, you are spot on with Top Gear. I recommend it because I think the humour is very British. Last night, for example, he ( and his mates ) was being very rude about American cars ( they don't do corners, they don't understand luxury ), and I can see that any Americans watching could have been very offended. But he was, I think, close to right, in pointing out what was expected by the British in a car. His way is to be rude, but his understanding of "Britishness", I think, much better than appears from his brusque manner.
And Simon Cowell is just unpleasantly rude.
Northern chippys have traditionally ( IME ) done Cod or Plaice as the options for fish, and sausages in batter and without, and pies. And chips. This is from the Midlands where I grew up, and Wales where we often took our holidays. These days I would usually expect them to have a vegetarian offering, and a few other variants on the basic.
They can also be very variable. Our local one used to do really nice stuff, but it changed hands and now is awful. Price is not always an indication of quality.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Cartmel Veteran
Shipmate
# 7049
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Posted
In my experience of local chippies the Chinese ones have been better, I think this is due to chinese food having a lot of frying with higher temperature oil. So the chips are very nicely cooked without being soggy, whereas a few "English" local chippies tend to make rather a soggy chip at times. Thankfully the local place, where one would often see the chips tipped from a dirty bucket into the fryer, has been taken over by a Chinese family the quality of the food has improved somewhat.
Not that I partake. I recently managed to work through trying all the items on the menu (in successive visits I hasten to add) of my favourite local curry emporium. Now sans girlfriend I won't be turning up their every Friday evening after work and can now look to shedding the worrying amount of flab that I've built up thanks to my cuddly-bloke-loving cheesecake baking ex-girlfriend ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posts: 1041 | From: Dorset | Registered: May 2004
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rosamundi
Ship's lacemaker
# 2495
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
rosamundi - I have not ever actually done this. I have ( when I was working in Stratford E15 ) met some tourists who were looking for Shakespeares birthplace.
What they asked me for was a road nome, so it was a leaving comment that I only really heard too late, that it was Shakespeares place they were after.
I have to say, it was the most utterly random experience of my life, apart from the time someone came into the supermarket where I worked and asked me if the ducks were dead. Since the ducks in question were headless, gutless, plucked, shrink-wrapped in plastic, and deep-frozen, I sincerely hope they were.
So, I'm outside the Tube station, and this couple came up to me. "Excuse me, Miss, can you help us?" "Erm, I can try." "We're trying to get to Anne Hathaway's cottage, but none of the Tube staff have heard of it and we can't find it on the map." (Most Tube stations have a map showing local Places of Interest).
I did a quick double take. "Anne Hathaway's cottage?" I asked, checking. I mean, I might have misheard, and they really wanted to go to Abbey Mills Pumping Station. (Something to do with sewage. Do not go there, it smells).
"Yes. It says here that it's in Stratford." Quick look at guide book. Yep, Anne Hathaway's cotage, Stratford. Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Oh, dear oh dear.
Still, we got it all straightened out in the end, with the help of the train times phone number, a tube map, and the handy-dandy map in my diary. "See, you're here, which is practically Essex, and you want to be here, which is up in the Midlands, and you'll need to take a train from here, which you get to by getting back on the Tube, and changing lines there and..."
The only problem is that the Tube staff now have me down as some sort of fount of information of how to get from here to there, (wherever there might be in this context), when I have been known to get lost going from my bedroom to the kitchen.
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Website.
Ship of Fools flickr group
Posts: 2382 | From: here or there | Registered: Mar 2002
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
Your yanks missed a great Stratford Experience
Abbey Mills pumping station is a lovely place. Lots of rare plants and wild creatures
And there is the "Greenway" walk alomg the Northern Sewage Outfall all the way to Beckton
And there are sand martins and swallows and house martins all nesting and flying together where Stratford High Street crosses the Mill River
And you can walk up to the Tottenham Marshes and have a picnic
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Ferijen
Shipmate
# 4719
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
They can also be very variable. Our local one used to do really nice stuff, but it changed hands and now is awful. Price is not always an indication of quality.
Or quantity... Our local chippy's 'small' portion could quite easily feed three hungry people (and I don't have a small appetite) and their large portion, when wrapped up, could feed four or five. All for £1.50. OTOH, you can be lucky to get a small bag in other places.
Oh, whilst we're on the subject, "salunigar" means 'salt and vinegar' in these establishments. If you say no, as I always do, you tend to get an incredulous look.
Posts: 3259 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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Yangtze
Shipmate
# 4965
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ferijen:
Oh, whilst we're on the subject, "salunigar" means 'salt and vinegar' in these establishments. If you say no, as I always do, you tend to get an incredulous look.
Well no wonder. Salt and vinegar on chips is divine. Why on earth would you not want to have it?
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Arthur & Henry Ethical Shirts for Men
organic cotton, fair trade cotton, linen
Sometimes I wonder What's for Afters?
Posts: 2022 | From: the smallest town in England | Registered: Sep 2003
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Katherinef
Shipmate
# 5811
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Posted
May I recommend Kate Fox's Watching the English to any curious foreigners, or indeed anyone who wants a good laugh? It's a recent release; a pop-anthropological study of the English, by an Englishwoman. I was reading it in Waterstone's the other day and practically injured myself restraining my laughter. (I am just English enough not to want to laugh out loud in public...)
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"First consecrate your muffin..."
(Adeodatus)
Posts: 98 | From: Dublin | Registered: Apr 2004
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Amphibalus
Cloak of anonymity
# 5351
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Yangtze:
Salt and vinegar on chips is divine. Why on earth would you not want to have it?
Would you be prepared for the moment when my stomach rejects the vinegar as unfit for this human's consumption - as it invariably does?
(Says Amphibalus with the still-vivid memory of the friend at an old school reunion dinner who said, in a loud stage-whisper when the prawn cocktail was placed before him, 'My word, that must have tasted nice the first time it was eaten.')
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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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Yangtze
Shipmate
# 4965
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Posted
First Ferijen and now Amphibalous, which means there are two of you out there who don't like vinegar on chips. Oh my, what is the world coming to?
Next you'll be saying you don't like Marmite!
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Arthur & Henry Ethical Shirts for Men
organic cotton, fair trade cotton, linen
Sometimes I wonder What's for Afters?
Posts: 2022 | From: the smallest town in England | Registered: Sep 2003
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Oxymoron
Shipmate
# 5246
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Posted
I HATE vinegar.
Every time I get fish'n'chips they ask I want salt and vinegar. I say salt, no vinegar. They then turn around, get the fish'n'chips, turn to face me, and put on salt and vinegar.
It took me a long time to solve this. See, they ALWAYS add salt and vinegar, and it is just natural to them, like blinking. They don't THINK. The trick is to MAKE them think. So now, when they turn around to get the fish'n'chips, I move the vinegar to somewhere else. Their had fly's to where it should be, hovers in the air for a while, a puzzled look comes across their face. THEN they realise you didn't WANT vinegar, and they relax.
The lengths I have to go to!
Posts: 179 | From: Brunel's Kingdom | Registered: Nov 2003
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Yangtze
Shipmate
# 4965
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Posted
Now, you see I have the opposite problem. They ask if I want salt'n'vinegar. I say 'yes please, lots of vinegar' and then they put the most miniscule dribble of vinegar on. If I'm not keeping a close eye on procedings they've wrapped it up before I can say 'more please, no really, more, little bit more, more, keep going, bit more...'
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Arthur & Henry Ethical Shirts for Men
organic cotton, fair trade cotton, linen
Sometimes I wonder What's for Afters?
Posts: 2022 | From: the smallest town in England | Registered: Sep 2003
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MrPiccolo
Ship's Yorkie Bar
# 7103
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
We from the western side of the Pennines major in the higher arts such as sarcasm, irony, micky taking and black humour. Oh, and we can't shut up and are a bit daft too.
.. The only reason we have the western side of the Pennines is to stop all the excess rain from falling on "God's Own County" (Yorkshire)...
note to Non-Brits:
This is a typical example of "Northern Humour"!
MrP, "Born n Brewed in Leeds the traditional way".
(So too is that..)
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"..Love is not a victory march, it's a cold and broken hallelujah." Jeff Buckley, quoting Leonard Cohen.
Posts: 436 | From: Leeds | Registered: May 2004
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Come to Scotland.
Here it's saltinsoss ('soss' = brown goop)
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Oxymoron:
Every time I get fish'n'chips they ask I want salt and vinegar. I say salt, no vinegar. They then turn around, get the fish'n'chips, turn to face me, and put on salt and vinegar.
The trick is not to mention the word "vinegar". They're conditioned to hearing it in association with the words "yes please". When they ask you if you want salt and vinegar you should say firmly, "Just salt, please."
I don't mind vinegar, but I generally think lemon juice is a whole lot nicer and wish they would offer that instead.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Wet Kipper
Circus Runaway
# 1654
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Posted
Firenze, the saltinsoss offer only extends to those on the East coast of the country....
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- insert randomly chosen, potentially Deep and Meaningful™ song lyrics here -
Posts: 9841 | From: further up the Hill | Registered: Nov 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by MrPiccolo:
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
We from the western side of the Pennines major in the higher arts such as sarcasm, irony, micky taking and black humour. Oh, and we can't shut up and are a bit daft too.
.. The only reason we have the western side of the Pennines is to stop all the excess rain from falling on "God's Own County" (Yorkshire)...
note to Non-Brits:
This is a typical example of "Northern Humour"!
MrP, "Born n Brewed in Leeds the traditional way".
(So too is that..)
And, of course, the only reason for the eastern side of the Pennines is to keep the worst of the wind off Lancashire.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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MrPiccolo
Ship's Yorkie Bar
# 7103
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
And, of course, the only reason for the eastern side of the Pennines is to keep the worst of the wind off Lancashire.
.. "There's some lovely roads out of Lancashire; (any road out of Lancashire is lovely..)" ![[Cool]](cool.gif)
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"..Love is not a victory march, it's a cold and broken hallelujah." Jeff Buckley, quoting Leonard Cohen.
Posts: 436 | From: Leeds | Registered: May 2004
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Ferijen
Shipmate
# 4719
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Posted
For the salt and vinegar thing - vinegar I've never cared much for, salt takes away the flavour and I never, ever add it to anything, even when cooking (yes, even when it says 'cook in salted water'). I am particularly traumatised when people add salt to things like lettuce and tomatoes. Not to mention what it might do for your blood pressure/heart etc. etc.
To understand English food properly, and the differences between North East and North West cuisine (speaking as someone with half the family from the NE and having lived in Lancashire for most of my life - do not let my southern residence deceive you...) is the fact that on one side of the pennines it is more traditional to 'mush' your peas, and in the other it is considered more stylish to solidify them into pease pudding. Both are equally vile...
[ 18. June 2004, 10:47: Message edited by: Ferijen ]
Posts: 3259 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
It's actually the purpose of the Pennines themselves, amongst other purposes.
The Pennines are actually for the following:
(1) Heralding winter with the first snow on Snake Pass. This means it's time to bring your non-frost hardy perrenials in.
(2) Forcing damp Atlantic air to drench Manchester before getting here.
(3) Nice walks in the summer
(4) Quaint Teashops to fleece daft southerners of their cash.
(5) Quaint Crafte Shoppes in market towns for the same purpose, but in larger amounts
(6) Somewhere to put the Cat and Fiddle Inn
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Yangtze
Shipmate
# 4965
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Posted
Ferijen - remember on another thread I thought you were me? (At least I think that was you, if not this is a very weird comment.) Well now I realise you are the bit of me that went down the other trouser leg of time and space. Mushy peas are manna from heaven. Particularly when eaten with chips soused in vinegar.
Pickled eggs on the other hand are something I have never yet dared to get near.
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Arthur & Henry Ethical Shirts for Men
organic cotton, fair trade cotton, linen
Sometimes I wonder What's for Afters?
Posts: 2022 | From: the smallest town in England | Registered: Sep 2003
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Mushy peas are wonderful. Unfortunately there are many unenlightened souls who have yet to understand them.
Pickled eggs, on the other hand, just taste like hard boiled eggs with vinegar on them.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Ormo
Shipmate
# 4805
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Posted
Mushy peas are one thing that I wish more chippies here had...
Which side of the pennines is the mushy peas side? I hope it is the west side...
Posts: 445 | From: Belfast, Northern Ireland | Registered: Aug 2003
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
![[Eek!]](eek.gif) There are chippies WITHOUT mushy peas?
[ 18. June 2004, 11:04: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by MrPiccolo:
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
And, of course, the only reason for the eastern side of the Pennines is to keep the worst of the wind off Lancashire.
.. "There's some lovely roads out of Lancashire; (any road out of Lancashire is lovely..)"
A Blackburn lad wins £500,000 on the lotto and gets a nice house, tells the boss where to put the job and on return from holiday goes to the local luxury car dealer.
He has a look around and the salesman describes the really quick ones to him ending with the phrase "With one of these you can be in Halifax in 15 minutes". Our hero thinks for a few seconds then decides not to buy. The salesman, disappointed asks why. "Oh, it's a lovely car but why would anyone want to be in Halifax".
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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MrPiccolo
Ship's Yorkie Bar
# 7103
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Posted
Lancashire dialect
The Lancashire dialect reverses the "u" sounds in "put" and "putt." A Lancastrian gave a lecture to a large mixed class on the Antarctic expedition led by Sir Vivian Fuchs. He called him F*cks throughout. A colleague remonstrated after the lecture: "You know, his name is Fuchs." "Oh yes; but I didn't like to say it with all those ladies present."
--J.E.Littlewood, "A Mathematician's Miscellany"
This could drag on and on ..
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"..Love is not a victory march, it's a cold and broken hallelujah." Jeff Buckley, quoting Leonard Cohen.
Posts: 436 | From: Leeds | Registered: May 2004
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
All the Lancastrians I know, in common with everyone else between Peterborough and Carlisle, pronounce "put" and "putt" the same.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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MrPiccolo
Ship's Yorkie Bar
# 7103
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
All the Lancastrians I know, in common with everyone else between Peterborough and Carlisle, pronounce "put" and "putt" the same.
i believe the lancastrian pronouciation of "put" could be expressed as "poot" as in "boot" instead of "but"; if that helps karl..
And i thought i was pedantic..
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"..Love is not a victory march, it's a cold and broken hallelujah." Jeff Buckley, quoting Leonard Cohen.
Posts: 436 | From: Leeds | Registered: May 2004
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
From what I recall the "put" and "poot" distinction is more East Lancs (anywhere east of a line through Bolton & Blackburn) than Lancashire in general.
"flood" is pronounced with a long "o" not "flud" and some pronounce "good" likewise.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
There are chippies WITHOUT mushy peas?
You bet. You know you're Up North, when you see guacamole in the chip shops. ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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