Oh Patrick, now you've started a whole other train of thought with those electric milk trucks...;-)

Thanks for the link hanl -- after I posted my message I went to the Beeb site to check, and found it. Sadly, at work I can't open the media file: will have to try it at home. (I thought the map was good -- I never knew where some of those strange-sounding places were).

This thread and the one about the Caroline Fox book are more entertaining than work this morning...

Gotta say The Beatles and Monty Python.

Real marmalade. Double cream.

Women in sensible shoes walking their Airedales off lead.
A quiet garden.
John Cleese.

Women in sensible shoes walking their Airedales off lead.>>>>>

There's a word for ladies like that.

Hi
There used to be a club in Brooklyn NY many years ago that makes me think of England. It was called "Warm Beer and Lousy Food".

"Sunny spells"

Sheep.

I wouldn't even want to hazard a guess as to how many sheep we say in the Lake District and Yorkshire.

Beer.

Every time I walk past the beer cooler in a store here, I look at all of that icy-cold beer, and think of how great a warmish pint of real ale would be (and think 'yuck' about the icy-cold stuff).

BIG monstrous SUVs in towns, and rising gas prices.

Makes me think of those practical little cute autos that seem to exist only in the UK.

We *saw* sheep

Stupid typing! Wish Fodor's had an edit function for cleaning up stupid stuff after posting...

PalQ,

shouldn't that be 'scattered showers and sunny spells'?

I used to know a poem about weather forecasting but the only verses I can really remember are the first

"You know the optimistic chap
Who stands before the weather map
What he endearingly foretells is
Scattered showers and sunny spells"

over the next few verses the weather gets progressively worse - until,

"So when the hurricane hits our shores
And loud and fierce the tempest roars
Above the hurricane he yells
"It’s scattered showers and sunny spells"

What is Michael Fish up to these days?

>>Music by people who could only be English; Billy Bragg; Ray Davies and the Kinks; Richard Thompson; Viv Stanshall; Neil Innes.<<

Not Prefab Sprout, David?

>>Carols from Kings College Cambridge<<

Yes, and John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers as well.
Shakespeare
Jane Austen
C.S. Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien
Patrick O'Brian

Lee Ann

ElendiPickle,

My children used to love Neil Innes in Puddle Lane - he played a wizard!

But that has to be 20 years or so ago

Hmmm... Rutles to childrens television - a good career move?

Phrases seldom heard in the US:
"Cheers" used instead of Thank You.
"Sorry" used instead of Excuse Me.
"Brilliant". I last heard Brilliant used by a much overworked airport attendant when I finally found my flight itinerary to present to her and she could shuffle me along. I still bring back that simple phrase when I close my eyes & long to be on my way through Heathrow for a visit to London.

Veering slightly OT: Bruce, we've been enjoying the recent Guinness commercials where a couple of well-meaning yet clueless cartoon guys come up with a "great" idea* that is greeted with cries of "Brilliant!" It has a definite Pythonesque flavor we enjoy

*Most recent version has them putting Limburger cheese on their heads so that they will blend in at a football game.

One of those words with meanings that go in and out of fashion - for one use, see:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/fastshow...rilliant.shtml

But it can also be used sarcastically, much like Hyacinth Bucket's brother-in-law Onslow's "Oh nice!!!"

Alya, you quote a poem that I've been trying to find. The one that goes:
"You know the optimistic chap
Who stands before the weather map
What he endearingly foretells is
Scattered showers and sunny spells"

Nothing came up on Google. Any ideas where to find the whole thing? Title, or who wrote it? (Sounds a bit like John Betjeman, maybe?)

I first heard of the Shipping Forecast from Mrs. Bale, As Time Goes By.
Trying to fix a decent cup of tea
Visiting the British food shop
Green rolling hills, esp if misty
Britcoms/PBS Mystery/Masterpiece Theatre
Mother's family in England

SB traveler

I don't know who the author is but every year when I was a 'little one' I got a book of poems from Santa - its the one poem I can remember if only partially

I know a new book was published every year and all the poems had 'Kinkade' ish illustrations.

I'm racking my brain and came up with another snippet.

"but still he stands and still he dwells
on scattered showers and sunny spells"

Sorry!

SB Travlr

The Fireside Book by David Hope, but it could be from any year 1970 - 1980.

Happy Hunting!

BEER