(no subject)
Everything was mysterious and exciting in a way you can't imagine. England was full of words I'd never heard before - streaky bacon, short back and sides, Belisha beacon, serviettes, high tea, ice-cream cornet. I didn't know how to pronounce ‘scone’ or ‘pasty’ or ‘Towcester’ or ‘Slough’. I had never heard of Tesco's, Perthshire or Denbighshire, council houses, Morecambe and Wise, railway cuttings, bank holidays, seaside rock, milk floats, trunk calls, Scotch eggs, Morris Minors and Poppy Day. For all I knew, when a car had an L-plate on the back of it, it indicated that it was being driven by a leper.
-Bill Bryson. It is interesting to speculate what an American might have assumed these terms meant. Pasty = something strippers wear? Seaside rock = igneous formation? Milk float = some kind of drink? Scotch egg = something involving whisky?
PS, I'm still not sure how to pronounce ‘Towcester’.
* * * * *
Sen. John McCain is asked in Oklahoma what should be done about Iran. There are many possible responses to this question, of course. How can a single senator distill all the arguments and counter-arguments down into one reasoned and pithy response? Well, maybe by chanting "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to the tune of "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys. Don't believe me?
-Bill Bryson. It is interesting to speculate what an American might have assumed these terms meant. Pasty = something strippers wear? Seaside rock = igneous formation? Milk float = some kind of drink? Scotch egg = something involving whisky?
PS, I'm still not sure how to pronounce ‘Towcester’.
* * * * *
Sen. John McCain is asked in Oklahoma what should be done about Iran. There are many possible responses to this question, of course. How can a single senator distill all the arguments and counter-arguments down into one reasoned and pithy response? Well, maybe by chanting "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to the tune of "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys. Don't believe me?
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