Wine thoughts for dinner menu?

Hold your horses there, Ian. I'll bet the inhabitants of _South_ America (who speak primarily either Spanish or Portuguese) would give us just as hard a time if we in the USA were to call our version of English "American" as you do for our calling it "English".

Maybe we need another name for it, but in the meantime we'll default to "English" - as opposed to "The King's English". ;^)

Whoa! "Coruscating"? Good word. I had to look that one up. :^)

Hey, wait a minute! What about three of our most highly regarded _heroes_? James Bond, Sherlock Holmes and our California Governator are all _Europeans_. Furthermore, these days most of our villains are arab terrorists - not "effete European" posers.

Our studio executives insist on absolute authenticity in their productions. What you see these days on TV and at the movies here in the USA is as close to documentary as it gets! ;^D

Tom S

Salut/Hi Max Hauser,

le/on Sat, 17 Apr 2004 15:43:53 -0700, tu disais/you said:-

Absolutely. I remember driving on I (something or other) in NY state when we came to a bridge. Just before it was a sign "Beware, ice on pavement" I frowned and asked Jacquie "I wonder why they warn you about ice on the pavement, when we're twenty miles from the nearest town and pedestrians aren't allowed on freeways anyway. All most odd."

Because _your_ pavement is my road (surface) and _my_ pavement is _your_ sidewalk. While I was perfectly well aware of the meaning and equivalent of the word sidewalk, somehow it hadn't occurred to me that my word for it had it's own meaning and usage!

No, although of course well aware of it. I've found that many of my american (oops - for Tom S "USAn") friends get a little twitchy when it's pointed out that many such names are exclusive to the USA, with almost all other anglophone countries using a different name. So I tend not to make too much of a thing of it. But that it should be so is not surprising really, as most of these other countries kept their English connection (dominance if you will) much longer, and will therefore have met these products via the UK.

Well, I have to say that I feel that if the members of a country; USA, UK or Outer Mongolia; want to use expressions form another, and in this context, french words for menu planning or food preparation, then that's fine, as long as they respect French usage. (I could add that the same applies - in spades - to the French, who have a positive genius for borrowing words from Ameringlish and misusing them. "Walkie-talkie" with the 'ls firmly pronounced, "un apartement de grand standing" "le parking" (car park). "Tchatcher" (to chat) and so on.)

And indeed in my recipe databases, I classify such dishes as "main dish", with entrees (in the french sense) as "starters", reserving "appetizers" for nibbles or more substantial food, designed to be served with the pre-prandial drinks, or standing on their own with cocktails.