Text 9649, 47 rader
Skriven 2008-01-07 10:56:48 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 9616 av Jeff Smith (1:14/5)
Ärende: The Queen's ... eh'
===========================
Replying to a message of Jeff Smith to Dan Ceppa:

 JS> Hello Dan.

 JS> 06 Jan 08 02:42, you wrote to me:

 ->>> On 05 Jan 08  22:38:38, Jeff Smith got back to Robert Bashe
 ->>> Re: The Queen's ... eh'

 RB>>> I know that, you know that, but to an Englishman, a "bum" is his
 RB>>> rear end.

 JS>>> Just as ass, tush, booty, Etc. are referances here for someone's
 JS>>> rear end. In the UK one would have to be carefull calling someone a
 JS>>> bum. Unless they indeed meant to call them a BUTT. <g>

 DC>> My favorite is the English telling a woman that they would like
 DC>> to "knock her up".

 JS>    Another is "Buns". In the UK buns are either bread or rolls. Asking
 JS> for a couple of sticky buns in a bakery there will mean Mr Baker will
 JS> give you two cake buns with icing (frosting) on the top. If I went
 JS> into a deli in Manhattan and asked for a couple of sticky buns I'd
 JS> probably get arrested or else get something rather unexpected and
 JS> hopefully unwanted. <g>

 JS>    Another is "Fag".  Over there a 'fag' is a cigarette. So in the
 JS> song 'It's a long way to Tipperary' the line 'As long as you have a
 JS> Lucifer to light your fag' is not a fundementalist statement that all
 JS> homosexuals will burn for eternity in hell, but saying that 'if you
 JS> always have a match to light your cigarette.

Actually you've mixed two contemporaneous WW I era songs there.  
The line "... lucifer to light your fag ..." is from "Pack Up Your Troubles
In Your Old Kit Bag" (and Smile, Smile, Smile), not from "It's A Long Way
To Tipperary."  Yes, I have both, and on WW I era records, too - but I
don't know if either is an 'original' (i.e. the first) recording of the song.

 JS>    Then there's "Shag". In the UK it means to dance. To us here it
 JS> means a sexual conquest or act.

Actually there was a dance named 'The Shag' in the US, too.  Around 1959,
song by Billy Graves IIRC, it mentions a lot of the other dance fads (Walk,
Slide, Pogo, Chicken Hop, Cha Cha Cha, etc.) of the time, too.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)