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What the? That's not what it means here.; what words mean in your country
Topic Started: Apr 24 2007, 05:24 PM (7,359 Views)
Canadabadgirl
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aj57
May 27 2007, 01:57 PM
I've heard of Minstrels.  Not sure if I've seen them in a local store.  I'll check that out.  I'll also look out for Twiglets, though I must admit I have no idea what they are.  Are they anything like Twix?

I seem to remember a store on Queen Street in the beaches that sold candy and chocolate - a sort of old fashioned style store that had the huge jars of candies it could dispense from.  Anyway, I'm sure it had a British section.  Damned expensive too, if I recall.  It was on the south side of Queen.

So, back in the UK next month?  Boy, you sure do have "itchy" feet.

Thanks. I'll have a look for the candy store next time I'm out in the Beach. I don't really like it out there - too many yuppie "helicopter" parents who think their children are the center of the universe so discipline is unnecessary for the little darlings...

My itchy feet are actually getting better! 2007 will be the first time in 4 years that I'm unlikely to make Air Canada gold status by flying 40,000 miles with them or their partner airlines in the calendar year.

And not all the travel is voluntary. When I leave for NY this week on business, the back-to-back treks begin and I'll be sleeping in my own bed for a total of 8 nights between this Tuesday and July 1. :( The UK is primarily holiday, and was planned as exclusively holiday, but not any more. One week turned into two, but of all the travel I'll be doing (apart from the UK), I'll be taking 1 day off in NY but the rest is all business.

Twiglets are savory, not sweet. They look like twigs - like uneven, straightened-out pretzels. They're baked and taste as though they're basted with marmite before baking. An acquired taste, so I've been told, but it's one I've definitely acquired!
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aj57
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cassandra
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They are bit like savoury biscuit sticks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twiglets). Completely different to a Twix.


Yeah, I just googled them. They don't actually sound too appealing. Maybe you're not the only one with defective taste buds.

cbg
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But I have to be careful that the cheese I eat doesn't contain rennet, which comes from the stomach lining of calves


I guess haggis isn't for you then.

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Canadabadgirl
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Cassandra
May 27 2007, 11:51 AM
I love MJNet
May 27 2007, 12:37 PM
As for being Barmy - my understanding is the origin altogether for Barm Cakes is the sticky, ale based yeast used to bake with called
Barm, and Barmy comes about because of that origin rather than the bakers origin.
Thanks ILMJNet! I still don't quite get the connection between Barmy and yeast. Anyway I looked it up (though this may not be a reliable source).

"Barmy" comes from the old English word barm, meaning "yeast". It was used to describe bakers who had eaten uncooked bread dough, and became tipsy. A second meaning has to do with exuberance, and again this is down to the behaviour of the yeast, which left to its own devices in a warm, sugary solution, produces vigorous bubbles. It is still used, most especially in the Midlands and North of England, to describe someone whose behaviour is, shall we say, odd or eccentric.

I'm not really much of a crisp fan so I'd forgotten about Wotsits. They do sound similiar. Anyway I promise not to ask why you were feeding Wotsits and chips to the local pigeons. No wonder they look well fed.

Thanks ILMJN, they are very similar to Wotsits, but brighter orange and fatter. But you're right - Wotsits come close. Of course, Wotsits aren't available here, either!

I had not noticed the pigeons and the chips until Cassandra pointed them out. Must be the caffeine in the Irn Bru that keeps her eyesight sharp... :ph43r:

I'd never heard the expression "barmy" until Simone Lahbib used it in an interview. I got the meaning from the context in which it was used, but I always wondered about the origin.

Thanks to the British Reseach Team - now to be known as the BRT.

Not to be confused with the Canadian Research Team - made up exclusiveley of, well, aj57...
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aj57
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cbg[/QUOTE]Not to be confused with the Canadian Research Team - made up exclusiveley of, well, aj57...
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Speaking of research, have you gone to members names musings in the muppet wing recently? Maybe everything you've been told about the RB Centre isn't entirely accurate.
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Cassandra
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aj57
May 27 2007, 03:26 PM
Yeah, I just googled them.  They don't actually sound too appealing.  Maybe you're not the only one with defective taste buds.
Yeah, definitely an acquired taste. I don't find the taste too strong but I neither like nor dislike them. Maybe because they don't contain caffeine? I am a bit of a caffeine junkie as CBG pointed out!

By the way, aj, I listened to that episode again and think you were spot on. Definitely sounds more like hippiecrit ('hi-pey-krit') to me. It's possible that Simone got a bit tongued-tied and mispronounced it, particularly if it wasn't the first take of this scene.

aj57
May 27 2007, 03:37 PM
Speaking of research, have you gone to members names musings in the muppet wing recently?  Maybe everything you've been told about the RB Centre isn't entirely accurate.
eh? You Canadians are far too cryptic!
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Canadabadgirl
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aj57
May 27 2007, 02:37 PM

Speaking of research, have you gone to members names musings in the muppet wing recently? Maybe everything you've been told about the RB Centre isn't entirely accurate.

Thanks. Have just replied. :)
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aj57
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cassandra
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eh? You Canadians are far too cryptic!


I'm just trying to guide cbg to my posting on "name musings" about the height of office buildings in toronto. You've probably already seen it and chose to ignore as being too boring - quite right too! Though, I think she got the wrong end of the stick about the Royal Bank's gold building. And if I'm right and she's wrong, I don't mind basking in that for a moment. Does that make me a bad person? :huh:

cbg
Quote:
 
And not all the travel is voluntary. When I leave for NY this week on business, the back-to-back treks begin and I'll be sleeping in my own bed for a total of 8 nights between this Tuesday and July 1. sad.gif The UK is primarily holiday, and was planned as exclusively holiday, but not any more. One week turned into two, but of all the travel I'll be doing (apart from the UK), I'll be taking 1 day off in NY but the rest is all business.


I can't even imagine all that travelling. A trip back home every couple of years uses up all my patience in airplanes! I can see how the internet is a real boon to you. Helps keep you in touch.

You know, there's something to be said for lack of ambition. I should know, I ain't got none.

You're probably on a first name basis with a lot of concierges.
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aj57
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cbg
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QUOTE (aj57 @ May 27 2007, 02:37 PM)

Speaking of research, have you gone to members names musings in the muppet wing recently? Maybe everything you've been told about the RB Centre isn't entirely accurate.

Thanks. Have just replied


Just went over there. Didn't see nuffink from you. Did you remember to press "send" or whatever?

Sometimes, I think your fingers work faster than your brain.
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Canadabadgirl
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aj57
May 27 2007, 03:25 PM

Sometimes, I think your fingers work faster than your brain.

Just so you know.... it's not polite to mention that...
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Canadabadgirl
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aj57
May 27 2007, 03:13 PM
  And if I'm right and she's wrong, I don't mind basking in that for a moment.  Does that make me a bad person? :huh:



No comment... :lol1

Quote:
 
I can't even imagine all that travelling.  A trip back home every couple of years uses up all my patience in airplanes!  I can see how the internet is a real boon to you.  Helps keep you in touch. 


Unless it makes me miss my flight, which has actually happened...

Quote:
 
You're probably on a first name basis with a lot of concierges.


No, but I do have a crush on the Air Canada agent at Newark airport... :wub: If she didn't make me shy, I'd proposition her - but I'm not even sure of my own name when I see her. *sigh* She knows it, too. LOL She upgrades me to business class with a knowing smile.

Seriously, the only hotel I stay in quite a lot is the Queen Elizabeth in Montreal and that's so huge that people are only starting to look familiar to me after a year. No doubt that will change, if my job doesn't.

And I don't think I'm ambitious. My executive is my age (6 months older) and he's been an executive since he was 39. THAT requires ambition, no life and months at a time of very little sleep. I'm not interested in that lifestyle, even though he's a platinum passenger with Air Canada (flies 100,000 miles a year). I'd rather play on message boards and write fan fic!
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Cassandra
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Sorry aj, I hadn't realised you were referring to your Canadian buildings comments.

aj57
May 27 2007, 04:13 PM
And if I'm right and she's wrong, I don't mind basking in that for a moment.  Does that make me a bad person?
By all means, gloat away. I refuse to comment on whether that makes you a bad person or not!

aj57
May 27 2007, 04:13 PM
You know, there's something to be said for lack of ambition.  I should know, I ain't got none.
I know what you mean. Must be another typical Scottish trait! :)

Though how CBG manages to do all that travelling .... and play on message boards .... and write fan fic .... beats me anyway!
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aj57
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cassandra
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QUOTE (aj57 @ May 27 2007, 04:13 PM)
You know, there's something to be said for lack of ambition.  I should know, I ain't got none.
I know what you mean. Must be another typical Scottish trait! smile.gif


Well, it's gotten me where I am today. My "executive", and by that I mean my boss, is one year older than me. He makes shitloads more than I do (because lawyers are notoriously cheap), but my 9-5 Monday to Friday really ends up more like 10-5 with as long a lunch as I can get away with. But, being only a 15 minute drive, or one hour bike ride away from home is something I can live with.

By the way, it's a little drizzly here today, just perfect for the flowers I planted yesterday. I didn't make a pass at any of the employees of the nursery, though.

btw I, too, have been to Montreal, though obviously not on business. Took my daughters there a couple of years ago on a long weekend. Stayed at the Sheraton. They had a package deal. It was fun. My younger daughter, who was 18 at the time, made out like a bandit at the casino.

cassandra

Quote:
 
Though how CBG manages to do all that travelling .... and play on message boards .... and write fan fic .... beats me anyway!


That's probably what she's doing at the airport when she misses her plane!
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microsofty
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Last night I watched Thank you for smoking. In the one scene the one guy is eating what appears to be a slice of apple pie covered with a slice of melted cheese. What was that all about? Did this guy just have very peculiar tastes or is that how some Americans really enjoy their apple pies? And on the topic of pies, I was also wondering what (an) American pie is?
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solitasolano
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microsofty
May 27 2007, 10:02 AM
Last night I watched Thank you for smoking. In the one scene the one guy is eating what appears to be a slice of apple pie covered with a slice of melted cheese. What was that all about? Did this guy just have very peculiar tastes or is that how some Americans really enjoy their apple pies? And on the topic of pies, I was also wondering what (an) American pie is?

microsofty, The saying goes, although I don't know where it comes, "as American as apple pie." So yes, apple, is the American pie...although pie is classically an american dinner thing....you know all those "homemade pies" in the the display behind the counter. That's the nostalgic view of pie in american cusine. Now a days pies in restaurants are harder and harder to find...to the extent that when we travel, I do my pie research online....where are the pies where we're headed. Our last trip into Arizona, we found this great pie place...don't have my photos from there on my laptop here but definitly was worth the stop.

The whole "homemade" is often a joke because the pies aren't homemade...the fillings come from a can....you know, marked "homemade" like the joke in the movie Million Dollar Baby.

As for the cheese thing on apple pie...that's not common in my part of the States, the left coast, but I certainly have heard about it. Googling, I found cheese on apple pie to be of English origin interestingly enough...
Apple pie and cheese
One combination of flavours common in the nineteenth century and earlier, which was referred to in English novels of the time, was apple pie and cheese,[citation needed] by which was meant sharp cheddar cheese. This was because the apple was not always sweet (the leading sweet variety, Red Delicious, was developed in 1868). The sharpness of the cheese combines with the tartness of the apple and so produces an appealing taste. While its popularity has waned as modern pies have become sweeter, some people still enjoy this combination. This combination of tastes is still practiced in Maryland.


Canadabadgirl
 

I'm not interested in that lifestyle,... I'd rather play on message boards and write fan fic!

I must add...thank goodness you do.
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microsofty
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Interesting, thx solitasolano. Do Americans call all baked pastries with a filling a pie? For example, in SA a pie is normally a folded-over baked pastry with a meat filling of some sorts. Other baked pastries that are not folded over and which is filled with something besides meat, for example apples, would be called a tart. Like an apple tart, as opposed to an apple pie. I have never had it with cheese, we normally heat it up and have it with a generous dash of freshly whipped cream.
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