Palenque

janisj, please, what is "pants fag"?>

probably some Frisco colloquialism?

walkinaround

>>>>>>
it's become increasingly modish to call them M&S,
>>>>>>


it's 'modish' to ignore this dinosaur store. it's completely irrelevant in every way...especially to anyone with a shred of 'mod'. it's pathetic that 'modish' in britain is now means coming up with a new colloquial expression for marks and spencers! crikey...what ever happened to 'cool brittania'???

crikey again...that's like saying 'modish' americans say 'penney's' instead of jcpenney!!! oh those crazy young people! there must be a different definition of 'modish' in the swinging cotswolds octogenarian scene.

annhig

Pal - I call it the "chunnel" too, so we can be naff together.

"Oh, almost forgot..the term "swish" definitely has a different connotation in the US than it apparently does in the UK"

really, Dukey? - do tell.

CW - is it possible that the advertisers were being ironic?

co-incidentally, my client today was in a wheelchair, having unfortunately lost a leg. it was just like the Fawlty towers sketch about not mentioning the war - the subject just kept cropping up.

janisj

jsmith: Missing punctuation can sink a post . . . .

jsmith

OK.

Jean

As nukesafe said, "Frisco" is not San Francisco. It's a town in Colorado.

May I add that "Cali" is not the state of California. It's a city in the country of Columbia.

stokebailey

I don't say:
Philly
Vegas
Chi or Chi Town
LA or Big Apple (except ironically)

(we think it's cute when outsiders call us St. Louie, though we wouldn't)

stokebailey

Or especially not Frisco.

I have been known to call New York "the town so nice they named it twice."

Cholmondley_Warner

re the "spazz" wheelchair: It appears to be a yank thing and I guess they have no idea what it means over here.

A bit like Planque who has no idea about stuff over here....

But hey; cut and paste works wonders. doesn't it Palanque?

PatrickLondon

"re the "spazz" wheelchair: It appears to be a yank thing and I guess they have no idea what it means over here."

I read it as deliberate - the equivalent of gallows humour: there are some people with disabilities who make it a political point to adopt the unPC words. There are equivalences in other minorities, but I'm not going there.

Cholmondley_Warner

Mebbee...

It was a well known internet joke a while ago,

Clearly they've kept the name.

grandmere

My English neighbor remarks about how we sometimes refer to "earth" or "soil" as "dirt", as in "The landscapers are delivering a load of dirt today".

Jean

Pal, SoCal is acceptable, but I don't know if our northern cousins like NorCal which I sometimes see in the newspaper and hear on the radio. It sounds clumsy to me.

Also seen in print media being clever are El Lay and El Norte. I don't have a problem with either, but I know hackles are raised in the English-only crowd. Oddly (I think), "the O.C." which started as the title of a TV show has become generally acceptable for Orange County and sprouted "the I.E." being used to refer to the Inland Empire (Counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, which some call "San Berdoo").

I guess the tourist office should issue a map with translations along with a pronouncing guide for the way locals say the Spanish names (not always correctly).

Palenque

thanks jean - i have heard California pronounced "Cal-ee-forn-ee-yah" is that an acceptable pronunciation?

stokebailey

Say, Pal, brother. You and CW both contribute a lot in your own ways. I think it would be better if you avoid each other and try to make peace.

quiUK

"janisj, please, what is "pants fag"?>

"probably some Frisco colloquialism?"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

and breathe....

Possibly one of the funniest forum posts I've seen in years.

FWIW - I call it Marks, M&S or Marks & Sparks.

And on the subject of visitors/expats using local slang - I have a Canadian friend here in London - she's been here 7 yrs. The other day she said 'Awright mate' but with her accent it just sounded wrongity wrong. She agreed.

BKP

quiUK -- we had been here (in the UK) for about 6 months when one of my husband's coworkers called him "china plate." Apparently, it's slang for mate. My husband thought it was hilarious -- but he will NEVER try and say it back.

Bert4545

Motor neurone disease is called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease in America. Another case of you say tomato and I say tomato.
BKP, that's an example of Cockney rhyming slang. What makes it difficult to understand is that the second part of the phrase is often (even usually) omitted. So "'ow ya doin', me old china?" or "Gi'z a butcher's" ["Give us a butcher's hook (look)"] One that's quite difficult to believe is 'Put up your dukes' (i.e put your fists up, I want to fight you'. Dukes = Duke(s) of York = fork(s). Then forks = fingers = fists!

Jean

Pal, I think that's the Austrian pronunciation. Check with the Governator.

Zeus

And wendys stealing clothes from Marks and Sparks
And fredys got spots from ripping off the stars from his face
Funky little boat race
Television man is crazy saying were juvenile deliquent wrecks
Oh man I need tv when I got t rex
Oh brother you guessed
Im a dude dad
All the young dudes (hey dudes)