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American/British Dictionary

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18:37 / 23.12.03

Most things are simple to figure out in context, but others need explaining. So often they're foods.

Please: what are jelly babies?
what are black & white puddings? (this latter I need to know as it's on the menu at the diner where I like to have breakfast, as part of the Irish breakfast. is it good?)
jersey = sweater, right?

Anyone else need help with the language barrier? (either way)

18:51 / 23.12.03

Jelly babies - chewy sweets (that is, candy...) shaped like little babies. Hmm... now I come to think about it that seems a little odd. Most people seem to take a perverse delight in biting their heads off.

Black and white puddings - sausage-esque things made from all manner of intenstinal yuck and congealed blood. They certainly don't float my boat.

19:35 / 23.12.03

Jelly babies = Gummi bears, but not quite as squishy...

19:36 / 23.12.03

And yes, jerseys and sweaters are one and the same!

19:37 / 23.12.03

Jelly babies, as Flowers said, are soft sweets (candies) in the shape of small fat people. Yum.

Black pudding is a fat sort of sausage made from meal and blood and ... actually, I don't know! They're certainly not veg, but I used to love them. Either served sliced in 3 inch rounds or as a long sausage - often in batter.

White pudding is a similar thing but made from lard/ dripping (ie. animal fat of some sort) instead of the blood. Delicious, I'm told, but I've never tried. Just don't believe anyone who tells you it's the vegetarian version of black pudding.

Jersey - sweater, yes, sort of, though most people call them jumpers. Maybe it's different in Ireland.

Your jumpers are called.... pinafores, i think? Sort of a skirt with a bib front?

Good luck!

19:47 / 23.12.03

Just don't believe anyone who tells you it's the vegetarian version of black pudding.

I think any vegetarian who can be persuaded that vegetarian black pudding is white deserves to be fooled. Thanks Ariadne, you have just given me my project for 2004.

21:06 / 23.12.03

But it happens so often, cash j!

In shetland, which wasn't exactly the land of the happy vegan, white pudding was listed on the chippie menu under 'non meat'. Which is, at a stretch, true I suppose, but somewhat misleading.

22:25 / 23.12.03

What's the difference between a quid and a pound?

22:30 / 23.12.03

What are pumps? Pedal pushers? What exactly is a "soccer mom"? I have a vague idea, but would like a proper explanation.

Is it true that proper American manners has you switching your fork from your left hand to your right?

22:36 / 23.12.03

Jack: just about the same as the difference between a dollar and a buck, I think.

00:12 / 24.12.03

What are pumps?

Women's high-heeled shoes.

Pedal pushers?

Women's trousers, 3/4 length, tapering to end at mid-calf.

What exactly is a "soccer mom"? I have a vague idea, but would like a proper explanation.

Pretty much what it sounds like--a (usually white) suburban woman, married, with school-aged children; owns a home and two or more vehicles, one of which is probably a minivan or SUV. Is active in the community. Usually the term is used in terms of a (perceived) voting bloc: the soccer mom demographic is a "swing" vote, meaning she's not a registered member of either the Democratic or Republican parties--she's an issue-oriented voter. And whether or not she works outside the home, the issues that are important to her are education and crime.

Is it true that proper American manners has you switching your fork from your left hand to your right?

Yup. When cutting, we traditionally hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right, then switch to the right hand for actually carrying the food to your mouth. Doing otherwise marks you as a pretentious Euro-snob--doubly so you hold your fork with tines curving downward as it enters your mouth.

00:40 / 24.12.03

Just so I've got the picture right, do you skewer food with the fork, then cut, then put the knife down, then transfer fork to right hand, then bring fork to mouth?

So given that I eat like a Euro-snob, would people actually notice/comment/care?

01:18 / 24.12.03

Just so I've got the picture right, do you skewer food with the fork, then cut, then put the knife down, then transfer fork to right hand, then bring fork to mouth?

Correct.

So given that I eat like a Euro-snob, would people actually notice/comment/care?

Depends where you are, and with whom you are eating: in some pockets of the US (mostly in big cities), Europhilia still reigns, and continental manners are seen as a sign of sophistication.

If you're dining with the Brahmins in the upstair's dining room at the St. Botolph Club in Boston, then left-handed forkery will be only expected. If, on the other hand, you are having the Long Haul Special Breakfast in the company of Harley-Davidson enthusiasts at the 76 truck stop outside Coldass Creek, Montana, you're probably gonna get some funny looks.

01:55 / 24.12.03

look, i may be feelin strongly cos i've been drinkin. BUT eating w/yr left hand doesn't make you look like a snob!! i'm LEFT HANDED, and live in the u.s., i eat w/my left hand all the time, and use the knife w/my right hand and this is the best way, i laugh when i see everyone else having to switch. i don't think it's *manners* per se that make ppl switch, as if we have many of those in the u.s. anyway. it's just they switch cos they have to. people hardly even notice, no one will think yr a snob. i'm the one that makes a big deal cos i like to sit w/a lefty on my left, or open space on my left, at the table, cos otherwise you can have elbow wars.

01:58 / 24.12.03

also, capri pants are usually mid-calf; pedal-pushers end right below the knee. look, i learned this in a fashion design class, so don't call me picky!

02:02 / 24.12.03

ok, if knickers are underwear, what do you all call knickers over there? short pants? can knickers be guys' underwear? oh, and why is benny hill considered funny?

02:16 / 24.12.03

why is benny hill considered funny?

Why is anything considered funny? Im not even british and I think he's fucking hillarious. He's got a short old guy that he pats on the head!!!
Its sophmoric humour taken to the next level!

The U.S call it a couch, we (canada) call it a chesterfield...which is it in britspeak?

06:38 / 24.12.03

Couch is okay, as are sofa (more common) and settee (a bit old-fashioned).

06:44 / 24.12.03

Mantis: Knickers, briefs, panties, scanties, undies. Then more specifically strings, thongs or belly warmers. And men can wear knickers, but only ironically. They wear manly things like underkeks or boxies or shreddies.

10:44 / 24.12.03

Mantis -- it's not just that we use the left hand, it's also that we keep the fork upside down, even when eating peas.

Personally though, for peas, I have right-handed and used the the fork as a spoon ever since I reached the age of majority.

10:47 / 24.12.03

But why do I right-hand? It is bad manners to spoon with the left!

*laughs at self*

10:57 / 24.12.03

I've always done it the "American" way - My left hand is hopeless and it's always been easier using my right hand... I never knew that's how you crazy Americans did it - maybe I'm actually American??

I fucking hate Benny Hill

Cheap. Easy. Cruel.

13:44 / 24.12.03

And men can wear knickers, but only ironically. They wear manly things like underkeks or boxies or shreddies.

What type of undergarment would these refer to? I get Boxies, that would be boxer shorts here in the states. I know that tighty-whiteys are called whitefronts (sp?), but what exactly are shreddies? Is it just a general term?

15:03 / 24.12.03

whitefronts

Heh.

It's Y-fronts--after the shape of the fly, which resembles an inverted letter Y.

15:08 / 24.12.03

The Benny Hill thing is really odd, cos in actual fact he seems to be far more popular in America than he's ever been in Britain. His programmes haven't actually been broadcast over here in over 20 years, y'know.

Cheap. Easy. Cruel.

15:19 / 24.12.03

It's Y-fronts--after the shape of the fly, which resembles an inverted letter Y.

Well, that makes sense. Any word on shreddies?

15:34 / 24.12.03

i'd warn against taking sax's translations as being any way universal - he is, after all, from the north and therefore probably keeps ferrets down his trousers...

Cheap. Easy. Cruel.

16:07 / 24.12.03

If they were particularly angry ferrets, it might explain "shreddies".

Brigade du jour

16:12 / 24.12.03

"Yup. When cutting, we traditionally hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right, then switch to the right hand for actually carrying the food to your mouth. Doing otherwise marks you as a pretentious Euro-snob"

As a Brit who has eaten a good few fried breakfasts in a good few 'greasy spoon cafes', I find it absolutely extraordinary that bringing the food-laden fork to your mouth with the same hand you stabbed with could possibly regarded as snobbery?!

Is this a wind-up?

Whisky Priestess

17:17 / 24.12.03

God knows what the etymology of shreddies is, but as far as I understand it, it refers to any sort of boy-pant, of whatever design.

What's a rudebaker (rudibager, rudabager ... no idea how to spell it)?

17:36 / 24.12.03

Bin bags/liners?
Are they refuse sacks? Trash bags?
I tried to explain to Spyder, dont know if he's understood or not.

17:37 / 24.12.03

I reckon that it's because after several days of continuous use they resemble Shredded Wheat.

Though not mine, obviously.

17:37 / 24.12.03

Just about the same as the difference between a dollar and a buck, I think.

Wait, so are you saying that 1 quid = 1 pound? I had thought these were two different units of currently? Buck is just another word for Dollar over here, not actually a different unit.

What's a rudebaker (rudibager, rudabager ... no idea how to spell it)?

Did you mean rutabaga? Its a tuber, somewhat like a cross between a potato and a turnip.

17:39 / 24.12.03

Felicia: Not a wind-up at all. And although American etiquette books all state that "either method iscorrect," there's a clear subtext that people who use the Continentalmethod are, well, just trying too hard.

Apparently the American method is largely due to the late introduction of the fork, which was not a common table utensil until the early 1800s, by which time Britain and America were well on the way towards cultural distinctness. This article gives the history,and also reveals some of the American cultural attitude towards the "Continental" method--although, to be fair, it's in response to a European's contempt for the American method.

Whiskey: the rutabaga (Brassica napus) is a root vegetable (related to the turnip) found in the Northern US, and also in Europe, possibly under a different name.

Carl Sandburg was much taken with the word, which I presume to be of Native American origin: he wrote a children's book called The Rootabaga Country (sic).

One for the Brits: speaking of vegetables, what exactly is a "marrow"? Benjamin Bunny passed a sackful of them as a brace of young rabbits (Farmer MacGregor being not the sharpest tool in the shed), but what are they? Rutabagas, perhaps?

17:40 / 24.12.03

A quid is a pound is a note is a sov is a beer voucher is a sheet is a knicker.

Which reminds me, Sleazy boy, I do not keep my ferrets down my trousers. I keep them in the bath with the coal.

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