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

And the local beer in Newcastle is colloquially known as "the dog".

So - does this reference mean I'm in the doghouse then?

Most certainly Mr Jones, three strikes and you're out!

Which brings us to 'Rounders'. Did it derive from, or predate Baseball?

Hey -good question. I'd love to be able to say it did. Where can we found out.

Sorry - cold fingers. . Can't tell the difference between past and present.!!

Rounders and baseball both are very old games. The earliest reference to rounders (1744) also contains a reference to baseball, so even at that time there were two games with slightly different rules. Who knows which came first?

OK, question. Who has heard the word "gadgie" or "gadge". Relatively common in Guisborough (nr. Middlesbrough), but I've noticed it rarely appears in dictionaries. Also, one of my scoutmasters claimed it originally specifically applied to a Gisborian, which we assumed to be false, but given that it isn't that widespread, this seems more plausible. Anyone know?

Kaeori asked why Geordies say "why eye".

It is in fact "why, aye", "aye" meaning "yes" in many parts of the country. Here in God's own county, we say "Aye" or "Oh aye", the Scots say "Och aye", though rarely "the noo". Even Ali G gets in on the act with "Ay!"

I've only ever heard of that in connection with a particular beer, Radgie Gadgie from the Mordue brewery. So I guess it is just from that part of the world.

Rounders is an early variant of cricket. In the days before tread on shoes it was considered easier to run a '4' round in a circle, instead of having to dash backwards and forwards. There were many more rounders teams than cricket because there was no need for a well tended patch of grass to bounce the ball on. It's cheaper on umpires and wickets, as the there is only one batting position. This also means there's no need to keep changing ends. This obviated the need to build a gasworks at one end so that commentators could identify which way the bowler was bowling. Baseball was similar in its essentials, but now rather resembles a costume drama, especially the 'World' series.

In the North-East of scotland, specifically along the Buchan coast, it means a person of dubious or unknown origin, as in "Who's that gadgie over there?"

From the same region, does anyone have any idea why a cupboard is known as a "press"?

Or even Roundabout, which might be a claim for the Brit vocabulary.

Just to re-visit an old theme, apparently there is a new and genuine Fish and Chip shop in New York (Greenwich Village) which also sells Spotted Dick and Custard etc.. Apparently they even collect old Brit newspapers to wrap the chips in. It has a clever name, which I forget, ..Ah me!!...

I have a neat little book here 'Frantic Semantics'. You will know of Malling, and Mall Rats etc. The shopping Mall being an american invention. Once upon a time, well in the seventeenth century anyway, there was an Italian game 'pallamaglia', a kind of aerial golf, that involved horsemen hitting (with a mallet) a wooden ball through iron hoops. This required a long narrow course. As the game became unfashionable, the courses for this game in St James, London, became thoroughfares for an evening promenade. Thus The Mall and Pall Mall became the places to be seen for the fashion victims of the time. That elegance was invoked (my word of the day!) by the City Planners and their wonderful drawings that became the bleak and windswept Shopping Centres of the Fifties and Sixties, instantly improved upon, with added roofs, air-conditioning and bored security guards, by our American friends.

antique cup boards contained a flour press i think,if you have one of these its worth a small fortune to a antique dealer

In Ireland it seems that the airing cupboard is called the "hot press". If this is also the case in Northern England I may have to amend my "Dublin English" article (http://www.h2g2.com/A275960) accordingly.

I think you may be referring to a Linen Press, James, which was often in one cupboard of a dresser and looked like a huge flower press, i.e. you turn a handle to press a board down on all those crisp starched linen sheets. Well, you didn't do it yourself, you understand, your laundry maid would have taken care of it for you!

No, in Irish books and films they always refer to a press for a cupboard. Is that a cupboard just for clothes or for crockery etc as well though?

The word "press" features prominently in several novels by Anne McAffrey, and I believe (though I may be incorrect) that it is actually a chest/trunk as opposed to a cupboard. Though I may be wrong...

In the Buchan area it means any cupboard, whether linen or crockery, or even the broom cupboard under the stairs...

Press = (esp Ir + Sc)large, usually shelved cupboard for clothes, books etc especially in a recess.

Yep, it's a cupboard up here in haggisland.

Can any of you identify what the American product called Confectioner's sugar would be called in British English?

I wrote an entry that calls for this ingredient and now there is some confusion over what the product is called on your side of the pond.

The thread is here http://www.h2g2.com/F56284&thread=86081&skip=0&show=20