h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is interesting - an article on the language of World War I:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26277732

Now, I admit that I winced when Americans referred to french fries as 'freedom fries' not so long ago. Little did I know that the British had started it 100 years ago, by renaming sauerkraut 'liberty cabbage'.

Verry interesting Icy

The one thing I found missing was the renaming of the Royal household to 'Windsor' to remove the obvious German origin

Maybe I'll put on some 'Freedom Fries' for supper



F S

I found the origin of the word 'strafe' to be quite interesting. The current meaning being a few steps removed from the source.


Geggs

Thanks for the link, Icy.

Those are all good examples.

During World War I, German Americans had a hard time. And they were a huge group. Flying ace Eddie Richenbacher changed the spelling of his name to 'rickenbacker', and the headline was, 'Eddie takes the Hun out of his name'.

Icy, was post #3 a cut and paste? What happened? It seems quite non-contextual, for you.

I thought it followed perfectly from posts #1 and #2

You might want to view it in a bug-free skin for best effect, however.

Post #3 was exactly the response I expected
perhaps we should try to learn the use < spaces >between the carrots, or not

F S

Ah, but then when they do invent a < wince > smiley, I can look back on this conversation and see it depicted

Yes. remember when millions of s suddenly appeared in all of 2legs' posts for the last dozen years?



Now, I'm wondering if we now have internet carrots to go with our Victory Cabbage. Tasty.

I was already aware of the term liberty cabbage. My source? Abe Simpson.

>>Three wars back we called Sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" and we called liberty cabbage "super slaw" and back then a suitcase was known as a "Swedish lunchbox." Of course, nobody knew that but me. Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling.<<

Throwing the stuff you wanted to move into a tow sack - or, int the 1970s,a garbage bag - was known in Pittsburgh as "Irish luggage'.

And, of course, a hammer was known as an 'Irish screwdriver'.

"Irish Hammer" - in my father's house, the house I grew up in, we had a standard hot water system - a copper cylinder heated by an internal electric element called an "immersion heater". Everybody in the UK and Ireland knows what I'm talking about. When the doors were put on the cupboard holding the hot water system, they didn't shut properly because part of the system stuck out a quarter of an inch too far.

The builders hit it with a hammer until the doors could close.

This would be a familiar technique in Pittsburgh.

My Father was born in 1903; and as a young child, I remember us visiting my Grandmother; who was well into her eighties. When we rose to leave, the parting words (which I never understood until years later) were invariably her saying "allé vite" and Father saying "tout suite"

It's amazing how these threads bring back childhood memories!

*returns wearing alabaster*

Ah.

Oh ah.

That IS a cool memory.

"a hammer was known as an 'Irish screwdriver'."

My instrument-making teacher Andy Manson (English) said that, properly speaking, a hammer is a screwdriver. The thing we always call a screwdriver is in fact a turnscrew.

Pedantry and accuracy are very good attributes for an instrument maker.

I can appreciate that.