Culture: Two nations divided...

[UKRay]

Oliver was one of my favorite musicals. I've got it in my collection, but it was fun to see that they had a reunion before Jack died. Not too many people into movie musicals, these days...

Fun thread, Ray. I'm curious to know more about Bow Bells. Kate

,

I love those old movie musicals too, but I generally keep it to myself round here...

Here are a few links you might find amusing Kate.

Just to explain, my grandmother lived and worked in and around the East End of London (she worked in Woolwich Arsenal, making ordnance, during WWII) so I was brought up hearing all kinds of East End (what some might call Cockney, I guess) expressions. My father (who has never even lived in London) is still inclined to use Gran's vernacular when he gets upset...

http://www.stmarylebow.co.uk/?Bow_Bells

http://www.cockney.co.uk/

Fans of Are You Being Served will enjoy this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/areyoubeingserved/index.shtml

Click here for Last of the Summer Wine:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/lastofthesummerwine/

Mushy peas are a Northern institution, Crystal. You can get them almost anywhere they sell fast food and IMHO they are foul... however, here is a recipe. make of it what you will:

Mushy peas

Serves 4-6 475g frozen peas (I like Birds Eye)

65g butter

6 mint leaves

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 Defrost the frozen peas in a large pot filled with cool water — this should take a only few minutes. Strain, shaking off as much excess water as possible.

2 Reserve about one-fifth of the peas.Place the remaining peas into a sauté pan, along with the butter and 50ml water. Cook over a medium heat until all the water has evaporated and the peas are cooked through. If your water is very hard, it would be best to buy some bottled water (or, even better, de-ionized car-battery water) to use when cooking the peas, as this will help to keep their colour bright green.

3 Place the cooked peas into a blender (or use a stick blender) and purée. While blending, adjust the taste by adding the mint leaves and the salt and pepper.

4 Fold in the reserved peas and serve.

Yup, same things happen to us, Tashabear, those lifts and elevators, appartments and flats get just as muddled this side of the pond. My favorite is when the author has her Brit character say something that is so profoundly wrong that, despite being perfectly happy with the book up to that point, you wonder if she ever researched anything.

Hugh Lawrie - I really couldn't say. Perhaps someone else has an opinion on this?

The picture below is of St Mary le Bow Church - home of Bow Bells.

Edited October 12, 2008 by UKRay

[Jordan]

Hugh Lorwrie (sp) cracks me up. Him and Jeeves get into some real capers. Don't remember the name of the show though. "House" on channel 13 is also very good he had to perfect an american accent for that one. Highway is usually the 4 lane between cities and freeway is in the cities but we just call them parking lots. I think there are classes here like the filty rich, rich, wanna be rich, etc. adnauseum. Head is a nautical reference to a crapper and all classes seem to use them when the need arises, irregaurdless of class. I threw a "u" in there for the heck of it when you gotta go you gotta go. Archieologists will probably find a twinkie in a couple of million years, just as fresh as a daisy. Wow, my spelling is horible today

[tashabear]

Hugh Lorwrie (sp) cracks me up. Him and Jeeves get into some real capers. Don't remember the name of the show though.

Laurie, like the girl's name. The show was Jeeves and Wooster, but I was more thinking of him in his various incarnations on Blackadder.

...as I sit here watching The Eleventh Hour on BBC America...

[TwinOaks]

Grits are the South's version of Ambrosia:)

It's coarsely ground corn- white corn for white grits, yellow corn for yellow grits. Boil until softened, but not squishy. Serve lightly salted and peppered, with a spoonful of butter, or alternately with ham and redeye gravy, or cheese. Some folks even ruin them and add sugar, which in my house is referred to as "Rurnt Grits". (oh the mental image y'all must have of me now...)

Overcooked (and unsalted) grits, like rice, makes a pretty good adhesive paste.

Cream of wheat is pretty much like grits, but made from wheat, not corn. Hominy starts out as corn, but the end result is different due to processing, and the fact that most hominy is whole kernal.

[UKRay]

Laurie, like the girl's name. The show was Jeeves and Wooster, but I was more thinking of him in his various incarnations on Blackadder.

...as I sit here watching The Eleventh Hour on BBC America...

Talking of Jeeves and Wooster, I have just watched a brand new, hour long BBC TV program with Stephen Fry touring the top right hand corner of America (New England and all that entails) and talking to people about what makes their part of the US different from the rest. The answers were fascinating and intriguing. He is heading for the 'deep south' next week - I won't be missing that one!

Thanks for the info on grits, TwinOaks. I'm not sure I'm much wiser as we tend to just see sweetcorn over here and that comes in tins. I'm really looking forward to visiting the south next year and sampling all your delicacies. I'm told chitterlings are something to look out for...

[JRedding]

I'm not real familiar with the food traditions in the South but coming from where I live (Utah) we definately notice the food preferences you folks have. Not to offend anyone about their favorite food but sit a bowl of grits in front of someone not raised on the stuff and it's pretty disgusting, definately an aquired taste I think. And what's with the love of gravy and the absence of ketchup, after a week of starving for something that tasted like home one time in Oklahoma I wheeled into a Dairy Queen thinking "it's a Dairy Queen, nobody would screw with a Dairy Queen" (I assumed it would be the same as the ones around here) ordered a burger and fries and was handed a bowl of gravy to eat my fries with, I asked the lady for some ketchup and she looked at me like I'd just ask her to pull her blouse over her head. I gotta' say though a week in that country and I dropped ten pounds, maybe I should go back.

[barra]

This is a fun topic. On the subject of British sitcoms. My all time Favourites are Dad,s Army,Allo Allo and Hyacinth Bouquet (Bucket) in keeping up appearences. As for the US version of Kath and Kim. Some regional sitcoms do not transfer to another culture and this is a prime example. The original Australian version is having a dig at Australian suburbia and doesn't work in a US context (or any other country for that matter). This one completely loses it in the attempt to make a US version.

Let's chuck in the Aussie cultural differences. I have found that we can readily itentify with The British ways and we can easily work out their slang terms. Our language and spelling is more British because that is how the subject English was taught at school. We were wrapped over the knuckles if we recited the alphabet and ended Zee (ala sesame street) instead of Zed. Computers and spell check as well as popular music/movies has changed how Aussie kids think, dress, speak, spell and act. A distinctive Aussie culture is slowly being eroded away.

Here a shrimp is a prawn and the idea of sticking one on a BBQ was cooked up by an advertising executive.

We of course drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. My understanding of this goes back to the days of horse transport. If we rode on the left side of the road and mounted/dismounted on the near/left side of the horse we are mounting/dismounting onto the kerb and not into oncoming traffic. It also had a cavalry meaning. Most people were and still are right handed. the cavalry trooper held a sabre in the right hand. If two opposing troopers approached each other and both were on the left of the road, their sabres could be efficiently utilised.

I was once told that Aussies/Brits/Americans actually eat differently, that is use their utensils differently. In my experience this is true but my experience with US culture is limited to California and NJ. We tend to hold the knife and fork in the hands for the duration of the meal. What I have witnessed in the US is people will chop the food with the fork and only pick up the knife to cut say a peice of steak and then place the knife down and go back to chopping away with the fork. Nothing wrong with this just a curious observation.

In Australia McDonalds is Macca's. We have no Wally world but have similar smaller chain stores, Big W and KMART. As for sport. We have football in Winter and the code you follow depends on your state of birth. This subject could launch an Australian civil war. In summer we have cricket and their are different version of this game creeping in. Traditionally the game of cricket lasts 5 days but now we have the one day version and 20/20.

In Australia if you ask for "A" pie it is going to be a meat filled pastry. You have to be specific if you want apple pie etc. Iced coffee is a cold coffee flavoured milk drink and ice tea is not real common. If you ask for tea it is going to be hot.

I have also discovered in my travels that US kids are FAR more polite in general than Aussie kids. Manners here has been flushed down the dunny (toilet). US kids for the most part still say please/thankyou.Sir/Maam.

And to me the ultimate best thing about US culture is when you go into a US restaurant the coffee comes in a bottomless cup. We don't tip (unless we want to). Having said that there seems to be a trend in places here for tipping. I personally have no problem with this if they drop the cost of their service by 15%. If you go into an Aussie restaurant the cost is on the menu and that is all you pay. The Wait staff get payed more per hour but this is because there is no gratuity. The dining experience tends to work out the same cost wise in the end in Aus/US (more up front and no gratuity as opposed to less up front +gratuity).

Finally. NO Australian drinks Fosters.

Barra

[TwinOaks]

I'm told chitterlings are something to look out for...

Don't ever ask for 'chitterlings', as no one will know what you're talking about. Here, the pronounciation is "CHIT-linz". Google the term 'chitlins' if you don't know what it is. Oh, and "cracklin's" are fat that's double deep fried until it's expanded and crunchy. Almost like a pig fat 'cheese puff'. It tastes like bacon, and almost qualifies as a food group.

And if you come visit the US, bring your own beer- our's is like sex in a canoe.

Another difference I've seen a lot: Here in the 'States, an engine is also referred to as a motor. I can't count how many arguments I've gotten into about the difference.

Edited October 12, 2008 by TwinOaks

[celticleather]

My father owned a Morris Traveller, and they were described by Dame Edna Everage as 'half-timbered' cars - presumably for people who live in half-timbered houses!

I was once commissioned to make a pair of leather suspenders for a guy in the States . . . it took a while for me to realise that he wanted a pair of what we call 'braces' to hold up his trousers (not pants)! Our definition of suspenders would have been inappropriate!

And as for 'Time Team' . . . I've followed the programme for the last 15 years, and finally this year I was invited to take part in some of their digs, but they're not due for broadcast until January 2009. They'll probably take a lot longer to reach the US!

This is a fascinating thread, and reinforces George Bernard Shaw's observation that the USA and Britain are 'two nations divided by a common language'!

[Jordan]

I had an engine boat once but I had to get rid of it because it had a bad motor.