U.S English/English U.S.

[Tetters]

This may well be the source of complaint from those attempting to learn the English language.

Ne'mind aye DM

 

[Mike Allen]

Many thanks friends for adding to this thread. Casting my mind back to school days. (left school 1954) Mental arithmatic was a favourite of mine. Now converting the old measurements etc, out comes pencil and paper. Metric should be easier as it's all multiples of 10. Then spelling. The american and computer spelling is so much simpler. OK. Whether you call a spade a spade or a shovel, that can easily be sorted. However here on the forum, we have some very knowledgeable members. I would personaly appreciate it if when mentioning plants. Please use the botanical names. Local and common names are not always understood. However. Please continue to enjoy the forum.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Many thanks friends for adding to this thread. Casting my mind back to school days. (left school 1954) Mental arithmatic was a favourite of mine. Now converting the old measurements etc, out comes pencil and paper. Metric should be easier as it's all multiples of 10. Then spelling. The american and computer spelling is so much simpler. OK. Whether you call a spade a spade or a shovel, that can easily be sorted. However here on the forum, we have some very knowledgeable members. I would personaly appreciate it if when mentioning plants. Please use the botanical names. Local and common names are not always understood. However. Please continue to enjoy the forum.

You want it, you got it.

Onopordum acanthium: this is the famous Scotch thistle. And the botanical name seems quite harmless, until you study it, because Onopordum comes from the Greek for … donkey fart. Apparently, donkeys like to eat it and the end result is both sonorous and malodorous.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

That's very true, Mike Allen. Not only are they not understood, but frequently misunderstood as well. As Englishmen traveled the world they named things for the things they remembered from their old country. I wrote a piece about robins once and put it on my writing forum, it got some strange reactions. The bird Americans call a robin is actually a type of thrush, rather than a chat, or flycatcher, like ours. Its only relation to our robin is its red breast. I don't know that I would agree with abandoning the common names though, I would advocate adding the agreed Latin name, so "My friendly little robin (Erithacus rubecula), will sometimes come within inches when I am disturbing the ground and turning up insects."
Mind you, no matter how sensible and how much confusion it avoids I have a feeling we old codgers might be on a losing battle here

 

[Oliver Buckle]

You want it, you got it.

Onopordum acanthium: this is the famous Scotch thistle. And the botanical name seems quite harmless, until you study it, because Onopordum comes from the Greek for … donkey fart. Apparently, donkeys like to eat it and the end result is both sonorous and malodorous.

I don't know about donkeys, is it true, or a myth because they are often in a field full of thistles? However pigs eat thistles, and the seeds go straight through them. Careful using pig manure, you may be unwittingly planting a thistle bed.

 

[Tetters]

Well when we get old and forgetful, and simply unable to remember how to name our plants, a simple solution is to call them all ''Fred''
We used to have a camper on the site here who went by the name ''Percy'' he called everyone else Percy as well - even his long suffering wife.

 

[Chuck-D]

Dirt and soil are not necessarily the same here , my yard is full of dirt and sand that is barely fit to grow crabgrass. I bring in loam, compost , and manure so i have fit soil to garden in.
But yes there are some differences between US and UK english especially when it comes to vernacular .

 

[Logan]

I still like to weight foods in pounds and ounces but when I've got a small container of blueberries that I've picked from the garden I like to weight them in grams because it's easier for me and that the supermarkets do them in grams so that I can compare the prices.
But I still weight myself in stones and pounds, I was taught that way at school and I'm going to stay with that as much as i can.

 

[Sean Regan]

In my early twenties in the 1960s I managed a branch of a chain of TV and elerctrical appliance stores. Most "big ticket" items were still priced in guineas.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Because of gardening I have flipped my switch for metric. How cool is it that weight and volume and temp meet at water?

 

[Tetters]

Cor @Sean Regan I make that £76. 13/-
We also had a radio & TV business as well as house wiring. My job was testing all the valves and cleaning dirty switches with ''jungle juice'' We had a shed full of valves , capacitors, resistors, and other junk.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Cor @Sean Regan I make that £76. 13/-
We also had a radio & TV business as well as house wiring. My job was testing all the valves and cleaning dirty switches with ''jungle juice'' We had a shed full of valves , capacitors, resistors, and other junk.

I think those "valves" are called "tubes" over here.

 

[Mike Allen]

Sean. We must be around the same age. That site in Footscray Rd, is now a B&Q.
Gns. is still used in the horse racing world.

Tetters. You have a vast amount of general knowledge and experience. So sad that most of todays youngsters, are totally lost without their iphones and techie bits and bobs.

For us Brits. The ruling of the EU & Common Market, bought with it many problems, converting weights /measures and currency. Plumbing & Gas fitting, the pipe and fittings differed. Weights/measures. In a local street market, many traders wers taken to court, due to their sticking to pounds and ounces.

 

[Sean Regan]

Cor @Sean Regan I make that £76. 13/-
We also had a radio & TV business as well as house wiring. My job was testing all the valves and cleaning dirty switches with ''jungle juice'' We had a shed full of valves , capacitors, resistors, and other junk.

"Back in the day"

Dirty pots were cleaned with "Electrolube," previously, other available cleaners would melt plastic.

I use Servisol switchcleaner, or Deoxit, on any electrical pots, leaf contacts etc., on my hi-fi and vinyl jukeboxes.
Some people don't understand that it's inadvisable to use WD40 for such jobs.

 

[Tetters]

"Back in the day"

Dirty pots were cleaned with "Electrolube," previously, other available cleaners would melt plastic.

I use Servisol switchcleaner, or Deoxit, on any electrical pots, leaf contacts etc., on my hi-fi and vinyl jukeboxes.
Some people don't understand that it's inadvisable to use WD40 for such jobs.

YES -that was the stuff. His Awfulness at the time always called the Electrolube ''jungle juice'' which is what's easier to remember now that my prime time is a thing of the past, and simply a fleeting memory

A valve,

Capacitors

Tube

Sometimes we had to go out house wiring. My job was to take a hammer and chisel and chase out for the conduit to go in - it was all hard graft in those days. After I got good at that, and was able to beat the plumber's boy in a race, I learned to lay the ring mains first fixing - then progressed to the second fixing.
All Lord Nasty had to do then was sort out the bunch of coconuts at the box.
Guess who got to do the sweeping up