British v. American

(Sorry, with a band comprised of 2 Canadians, a Brit and me, we have endless fun comparing pronounciations and phrases. I couldn't even begin to categorise them all.)

thus radio gaga/radio googoo sets up clever opposition whereby alternatives are mumbled rusks of the v.old and feeble ovs mumbled rusks of v.young and unformed

Blimey I thought people only used "fudge" like that in comics!

"Oh, bum" "Twat" "Good arrers!"

And gaga - you may not have noticed, but that's what babies say. It's not a British plot.

And what the fudge does mad mean over the water if it doesn't mean bonkers, nuts, doolally, barking, one "Fat Skier" short of a Throwing Muses back catalogue?

Blimey.

I'm still wondering what the English equivalent of "Luptune" is.

I'd just like to say that I now wuv Mark again, and have forgiven him his Alan Garner dissing.

But as for your original query, I'd submit "fancy" as in to feel attracted to someone. Whenever on Prolapse UBB I tell people I fancy someone I get Americans going on & on about "fancy". From this I conclude they say things like "I dig her", etc.

As I'm sure crafty Mark knows, 'mad' means 'angry' in America (as in 'don't make me mad'). But, Luptune, surely you have the 'insane' meaning too? Are you really saying that you lot get confused by phrases like 'he's gone mad', 'mad or bad?', 'The Madness of George III' (well yeah, I know that last one caused its own problems). I think you're making it up!

In America, mad people are angry, sick people are ill, and pissed people are angry too. There is no direct translation for 'fancy' there which is a really, really bad thing and makes otherwise sensible people resort to hippie-speak.

Americans don't really need 'git' when we have creep, asshole, jerk, dick, pecker, wuss, schmuck, and shithead to choose from. But anyone who read Star Hits (the US remix of Smash Hits) in 1984 got the British slang conversion chart with wanker, git, and many other faves in it so instantly augmented their speech patterns to be able to converse with visiting rock stars. Also the Monkees' Randy Scouse Git offered similar inspiration to me and my friends.

Yeah I try to avoid the use of 'sick' to mean ill. It's nasty and implies nausea where none is intended. Imagine if Morrissey had written a song called 'Still Sick'. That would just be rubbish.

Either way I want a Fanny Farmer t-shirt NOW.

a: "i'm going drinking at the weekend" m: "is that nearby?" a: "huh?" m: "is that a pub near your house?" a: "you mean flat" m: "huh?" ---- much laughing --- a: "are you pissed?" m: "about what?" a: "no are you drunk?" m: "no..." a: "anyway, i'm shattered, i better let you go" m: "shattered?" a: "i think i'll have a lie-in tomorrow" m: "wait.... i know this... you're going to sleep in, right?!"

Alasdair also found it funny when I called him a butthead.

I find it hard to say "Ta..." and "Oy" Is that spelled right?

You can learn all these things while watching Buffy.

No, 'pretentious shit' is said more or less the same way here as there, surely. *dodges brickbats, retires hastily*

Another observation ... us Yanks tend to use the word "shit" more often than you Brits. As in, "don't touch my shit," "he eats that shit right up," or "I'll be coming back after lunch and shit." Matter of fact, I don't think I've ever heard a Brit tag on "and shit" to the end of a sentence (as in "I'll be coming back and shit") the way we Yanks do all the time.

Re "wad" (i.e., "dick-wad," "shit-wad," etc.), in my neck of the woods (is "neck of the woods" also an Americanism?) it was always weed (i.e., "dick-weed") and not wad. Maybe that's an East Coast thing. (Which also reminds me, I went to high school with a kid named Richard Weed. Since Richard was a big strapping lad who played linebacker for the high school football team, no-one called him "Dick Weed," tho'.)

What I always wonder about is this: I get the impression that when Yanks and Limeys mingle in equal numbers, it is always the Yanks who develop Anglicisms (henceforth Limeyspeak), thereby proving either the superiority of Limeyspeak or the cultural pretensions of Americans. I suspect this is a purely subjective impression, though, since I really wouldn't know if the Limeys were affecting Yankisms or not.

So, question: as far as ILE goes, are the Limeys falling into Yank patterns as much as I notice the Yanks, myself included, falling into Limeyspeak? And what about the Frogs and Krauts?

you're american.

is this real and how does it work?

Kidding aside, I have read of archaic taxes on the number of windows in a residence, as a form of luxury tax back when window glass was an expensive novelty. I've never heard of a tax on window screens.

Looks like there was a snopes board thread on this a while back. The original poster had a friend return from a three year stay in England with a story about her cat escaping because the windows didn't have screens because maybe there was a tax? General consensus in the replies seems to be that the U.K. traditionally just doesn't do screens. A quick look at the window screen wiki says that it was invented in the us and is mostly used in Canada, Australia and the US. I guess it just didn't catch on in countries a lot older than ours?

Anyway, snopes:
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=next_topic;f=80;t=000693;go=older

We have a much more limited need for open windows.

i had to Google to see what a window screen is

i think it's just something we almost never use, altho i notice one brave UK company trying to make them happen

doubt if they've ever been taxed, it would be pointless taxing something that nobody ever has

i was also gonna add Shari's point but i'm trying to think summery thoughts

Do you think you have fewer bugs or a greater tolerance for them? Certainly you just have fewer mosquitoes, which make screens a necessity in a lot of the U.S.

The UK definitely has fewer bugs/insects (another difference there I feel btw) than the USA - the only insect attack you're likely to get from an open window is when a moth flies in during the summer. Likewise, bushes in the USA (particularly the south) always seem to be alive with creepy things, but British bushes are almost always silent.

the only insect attack you're likely to get from an open window is when a moth flies in during the summer.

Wasps. The occasional big bumbling fuck off bluebottle. Otherwise LOL @ the idea of the UK having the same numbers of invasive insects as the US.

Are waves coming in your windows?

France also doesn't do window screens which is CRAZY because there are fucking MILLIONS OF MOSQUITOS EVERYWHERE and nobody has AC fml

Had a few HUGE bees fly in in recent Summers. Would probably get screens if I owned a place.

re France yes, have stayed in rural houses where the number of flies coming through the windows have rivaled e.g. summer life in the upper peninsula of Michigan; and yet, no screens. we have no screens in Paris either but I'm not sure any insects live here (my son saw an ant in a park this weekend & was amazed)

I have been a bit tempted by the idea of screens over the past few summers but changed my mind when I saw the price.

We don't have many mosquitoes in the UK and midges IME are mostly content to hover in clouds above grassland outside rather than coming in, but every summer there is always one mosquito which makes its way into my room and keeps me awake and sweating under pulled-tight bedclothes listening to its whine. Apart from that there are moths and some tiny flies I can't even name but they really like well-lit ceilings - not dangerous but annoying to get tons of in every evening.

(I have an uplighter and nowhere to put it except by the window; moths love to incinerate themselves in it if I leave it on with the window open, and the smell of toasted moth is not a good one)

Every year we get tons of ladybirds (hey American chums that's what we call ladybugs!) but they are not really a scourge. It can get annoying, when there are lots of them, but they're easy enough to put outdoors.

My situation's p much the same as passing spacecadet (poor moths). If it's the price keeping you back, this is what I use during the summer:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7f/69/c2/7f69c248745d25331c4f560f67180c87.jpg

I take them down again in October or something. Ten bucks for some velcro and a roll of screen mesh and you're good to go.

We've got screens, and hell, we still can't open the windows here in the American Mid-South.

http://i.imgur.com/k3NjHsa.gif

Every year we get tons of ladybirds (hey American chums that's what we call ladybugs!) but they are not really a scourge.

The worst is when those ladybirds get in your garden.

http://i.imgur.com/hTmPjUM.jpg

Is that woman called ladybird is that the joke

Well, calling her Lady Dog would've been just too cruel.

Ladybird was the name of the dog in... Was it King Of The Hill? I forgot Americans call them Ladybugs. I guess we don't use the word 'bugs' all that much in general. Sometimes.

I got loads of mosquito bites the other night (in March in the UK, I know) but I'm pretty sure it's because my neighbour (neighbor) has a big canister full of rainwater stood (standing) in his back garden (yard).

Today I learned that Britishes think insects are birds.

We do get evil little bastards called Midges here

Ten bucks for some velcro and a roll of screen mesh and you're good to go.

Aha. Brilliant. Had been considering rigging something up but not really thought about what.

Yes, standing water is a bastard for mosquitoes. My parents had a barrel collecting rainwater and it was always full of mosquito larvae. I don't remember them getting into the house much but maybe they were getting into someone else's...

We do get evil little bastards called Midges here

Yes, but out in the countryside where nobody lives.

orly

you get them anywhere there's water or trees. As soon as dusk comes along in the summer the wee bastards appear

We do get evil little bastards called Midges here

Yes, but out in the countryside where nobody lives.

― Return of the Flustered Bootle Native (Tom D.), Monday, March 13, 2017 8:53 AM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also i don't remember ever being in a dwelling where midges actually come in en masse. they stay outside.

and that includes spending many summers in a caravan on loch lomond

also i don't remember ever being in a dwelling where midges actually come in en masse.

That's the stuff of nightmares tbh.

run to the car, open the door, jump inside, shut the door, scrabble at your face and hair

also i don't remember ever being in a dwelling where midges actually come in en masse.

That's the stuff of nightmares tbh.

― Return of the Flustered Bootle Native (Tom D.), Monday, March 13, 2017 9:24 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is what actually happens in north america from what i understand (no personal experience as southern b.c. not really affected by this sort of thing in the summer), if you don't close your doors and windows etc. and i think it's not midges but little black flies that they tend to have (in canada anyway) that can literally bite lumps off you :/

yes that is life in the upper peninsula of Michigan in the summer. BIG black flies that eat human flesh, no-see-ums (is this what britishes call midges?), regular flies, mosquitos some years. absolute savagery.

& I grew up in Florida where you can seal your house and still wake up with two-inch long roaches climbing up your legs.

now when my mom visits us in France she wants to bring screens with her because she can't believe that it's not like that here.

I got attacked by a swarm of wasps last summer and still get the heebies thinking of that moment when I realised I had a carpet of wasps down my legs and back all stinging the fuck out of me. The upside was that they weren't Giant Asian Hornets, but it is fair to say I couldn't sit in comfort for days. My kid with autism came off a lot worse than me because he pulled his pants down and was getting stung all over his bare legs.

midges are worse than no-seeums. they swarm and bite.

UP of Michigan native here; Euler otm

Calzino that is the stuff of my nightmares

wtf "no-see-ums"? do you mean gnats?

tiny little blackflies basically

or, sandflies

well now that i'm reading the wiki entry i think what i called no-see-ums were maybe not the real deal

midges are worse than no-seeums. they swarm and bite.

Highland midges are vicious little bastards.

they're like a fucking horror movie

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-37185160

D:

christ, what a bunch of assholes

I grew up in a wetland swamp in northern Minnesota and every evening in summer our window screens looked a lot like this

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DwKLvEdE3Fc/maxresdefault.jpg

And every night before bed, we went on a mosquito hunt with a flyswatter. After which, we had to clean up the little dots of blood on the walls.

My SIL's family made a game of having the kids hide under blankets while the parents blasted the whole house with Raid....

my mum called no-seeums THRIPS (which may be local = shropshire or yorkshire where she grew up) (or less likely welwyn where she also grew up a bit)

ladybirds (and their amazing dragonish babies) are great at eating aphids

i have sash windows open most of the year -- i've been woken by snow drifting against my neck before now -- and the worst of insect intrusion i get is the occasional sleepy winter wasp and a few fruit flies in summer if i don't police the fruit bowl for rot. you see do midges swarming of london water, like the series of reservoirs going up to tottenham, like great writhing ghostly columns of smoke… but they don't seem to move from there much