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

Her indoors says snib. We were arguing about it last night.

She claims that because W*k* have an article on the snib, that's the proper word for what's clearly a latch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snib

And you believe everything you read over there?

I only know the word "snib" because I only came across the concept in Germany and all my friends here that I was talking to about it were Scottish.

My parents were striving their way up the class system and called the living room a "lounge". They christened the conservatory (a glass addition on to the lounge, facing South) the "sunlounge". On the other side of the house, adjoining the kitchen door to the garage side door we also built a sort of glass-house connecting chamber. Which was known as the "conservatory". The porch was known as the "loggia". And we had a "larder" rather than a "pantry" (a walk-in store cupboard in the kitchen)

A snib and a latch are two completely different things to me - except that they are involved with closing doors.

"Ey oop duck, can thi do us chips on't bread caaake please?"

Hmmmm... you sound more Manc to me when I hear it in my head

all I ever hear when I go in the fish shop is "chip butty, please luv. Wheer's 'Hendos?" (because as you know they don't actually do the 't' thing in Yorkshire

to leave a door on/off the snib means to disable tthe automatic lock generally on a yale door (other brands are avaliable)
or at least that's how we used the word

latch suggests a... well latch like one might find in a old cottage

in a scottish chip shop a sausage supper means sausage and chips
if i ask for a sausage supper here i get a funny look and the question "thats sausage and chips right?.... so do you want chips with that?"

I've only come across the term "dressing gown" in literature from the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Like Amy Pawloski, I think of bath robes [or just robes] for wearing inside. Earlier generations probably didn't have central heating, so a robe wouldn't have kept them warm enough.

The idea of putting deep-fried potatoes [which we Americans call "French fries" and the British call "chips"] on or in bread seems like overkill to me. I've never seen anyone on my side of the Atlantic do it. If you're eager to develop heart trouble, eat as much fried food as you can . If you weigh too much and want to weigh even more, load carbs like potatoes and bread together.

British Chips are probably healthier than French Fries because they have a much smaller volume to surface ratio. Or something.

paulh: if you're uncertain what a dressing gown is, here's a picture of a chap wearing one:

http://h2g2.com/h2g2/blobs/arthur_dent_promo.jpg

Thanks for link, HD. I assumed that Arthur Dent was wearing a bath robe and matching pajama pants.

British (or English maybe), chips, are most probably not healthier than French Fries, despite the surface area to volume ratio and absorbancy rate/mass of cooking fat, probably.... mainly of course, because proper Chips should be deep fried in beef dripping

Pasteys description of the differnces visa vee dressing gown, house coat, robe, etc., is basically how I understood it...

I think bath robe and dressing gown just about came interchangible, as most dressing gowns and bath robes seemed to becomes the toweling type, Some people still wear them mind, despite cerntral heating and double glazing I used to use a toweling dressing gown when I was in halls of residence at University just so I could wonder through communal bits without having to get properly* dressed each time

The bread roll thing is just weird... mind, it can get even more complicated, with the nomenclature of some bread products which have the same name, being differnt, let alone the differnt bread products which have the same name, or the same bread products having differnt names (Crumpet versus crumpet, versus crumpet versus pikelet, versus muffin, and muffin versus muffin versus muffin versuses English Muffin versus crumpet, versus pancake etc)


Can a housecoat kinda be a bit like a smoking jacket? can one even get a smoking jacket anymore? It'd be a perfect thing to wear if I ever take up the sport of extreme pipe smoking...

>>Thanks for link, HD. I assumed that Arthur Dent was wearing a bath robe and matching pajama pants.<<
*covers eyes*

and nothing else?

Oh my goodness, I can't get chip butties out of my mind now

The British chip is definitely not the same thing as a french fry. It's chunky with lots of soft fluffy innard to squoosh between 2 slices of (white) bread. There are two things required to make this perfect: 1) the chips should be fresh & really hot; and 2) the bread should be thickly spread with cold thick butter*. This of course results in the hot chips melting the cold butter, which runs down your chin as you take a bite.



I think I need to be alone for a while.

Deb

*That's butter as in butter. Not "How Could You Possibly Think This Is Anything Other Than Butter?", not margerine or spread. Butter.

As an occasional treat, it's probably quite nice, deb.

There are a number of different ways of frying potatoes in the U.S. There are the French fries, some of which are long and four-sided, and some of which are more nearly toothpick-shaped. All are fried in deep fat, which has the disadvantage of gradually breaking down due to heat and the passage of time. Experiments have been done on the bad effects of ingesting them. For the first hour or two, your circulation slows down a bit. It recovers, though.

Closely related in the steak fry, which is chunkier and larger. This is also fried in deep fat.

Finally, there is something called fried potatoes, which are not fried in deep fat. You peel a potato, cut it in slices about a quarter inch in thickness, put a little oil in the bottom of a frying pan, add appropriate seasonings, and fry the potatoes until they get soft. Since oil is used sparingly, and since it is only used the once, fried potatoes are probably not any real damage to your health.

Of course, stepping in front of a moving train or large truck is much worse for your health. It might even be good for your health to enjoy something you love. There must be ways of balancing things out. Plus, the human body is amazingly adaptable. There are French people who eat greasy foods constantly, but if they wash them down with good red wine, the French paradox springs into action. There is something called Resveratrol in red wine, and it protects your body. There's a lot of it in peanuts, too.

The mistake most takeaways, in the UK seem to make is not frying their chips at a high enough temperature, and using cheap fat, and reusing it so* far past its useful life Of course, the UK fish n chip shop, useually doesn't make such mistakes, but there has been a move away from using beef dripping, for frying in, which is a pity, they just taste right* when they're fried, hot*, in beef dripping Mind, probably not very healthy, but if your not eating it every day, or too often...
and two slices of bread.... with the butter as previously discribed damnit... I can't remember the last time I had a chip butty.

hang on... this chip thing oughta be in a differnt thread shouldn't it?

now, deep fried dressing gown.... I'm not sure that would work very well

one of the towns near where i grew up had people that called a water tap a spicket

OK, this one might mark me out as weird and peculiar, but when I was a lad in Scunthorpe then Millionaire's Shortbread (with the caramel and chocolate, you know the stuff...) was known as 'welly boot'.

This is a reminiscence that has brought me nothing but peculiar looks whenever I recount it. Does anyone else have knowledge of welly boot?

B

I am giving you even more peculiar looks than useual, based on the contents of that post... *backs away nervously*

When 2legs backs away, you may have stepped over a line that was previously thought not to have existed