So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[MisterCairo]

Seeing how they’ve pretty well saturated the airwaves with advertising, I half expect them to start going door-to-door.

In Canada, lawyers are formally barristers and solicitors, so I always jokingly fake being offended by those no solicitors signs, announcing I am there in my capacity as barrister.

No one ever gets the joke. I probably need to get out more...

 

[tonyb]

In Canada, lawyers are formally barristers and solicitors, so I always jokingly fake being offended by those no solicitors signs, announcing I am there in my capacity as barrister.

No one ever gets the joke. I probably need to get out more...

Yes, I know. Same in GB, ain’t it, and those other former colonies where they don’t know how to speak proper American?

 

[Harp]

A long enough driveway tends to keep all but Jehova's Witnesses away from our door:

Many moons ago while living at home free, finishing my baccalaureate thesis at the kitchen table,
I was beset by Girl Scouts ringing the door bell and hawking cookies---bought about a hundred bucks worth
of boxes, how can you say no to the Girl Scouts?--all with GI Bill money, my mother telling me the cost would
be mine if I succumbed to these sweet scouts. Had to later write some term papers for the rich kids to cover.

...But then this Jehova witnessing erupted. Two or three, hastily turned away. The last couple to
arrive at the doorstep was a gentleman, his wife, and mother. His wife was an absolutely stunning red head,
easily a 36 C cup knockout delight. And did I want to invite them in for a bible session?

Told him I was a Jesuit seminarian home on leave, fluent with scripture but would only discuus
the Bible in Latin. And I stared out the closed door window as his wife walked down the street for
a very long ten minutes. My mom asked what I was doing staring out the window so intensely,
"just looking for any girl scouts Mom."

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
In recent years I’ve seen Girl Scouts selling cookies only at tables set up outside supermarkets. (Thanks for not knocking on my door, young ladies.)

I typically toss ’em five bucks and tell ’em to keep the cookies or give ’em to some shopper with a couple-three brats in tow and a cart full of breakfast cereal and fruit rolls and all that other kid food. I really don’t need the calories.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Door-to-dooring by the Girl Scouts hasn't been done in our town in years due to parental panic. I miss it, because now I have to drive all around to find what store what they're selling in front of. Shortbread (or what in my day we called "trefoils") Is Life.

 

[MisterCairo]

Pine tree-strangling vines. They keep coming back...

 

[Trenchfriend]

Pine tree-strangling vines. They keep coming back...

On pines?? Or what do you mean?

 

[Fifty150]

I always know a guy with a scouting age daughter. When 1 gets too old, another guy will have a daughter old enough. Over the years, I must have given those scouts $$$$. Whatever cookies which aren't selling as well, they can sell to me. I always buy a case, and then give the cookies away. I don't eat those cookies myself.

Boy Scouts don't seem to be able to market the value of their brand. None of the people that I know who have sons, participate in Boy Scouts. Almost as if it were out of fashion. For whatever reason, in The Big City, I don't even see Boy Scouts. If Boy Scouts sold Boy Scout Knives as a fundraiser, I would buy one.

 

[MisterCairo]

On pines?? Or what do you mean?

We had five pine trees die because a rapidly growing vine crept up them and essentially cut off the sun. I am now trying to eradicate the vines, but they root and spread under ground. I find the shoots and pull them out, only to have more show up!

 

[tonyb]

We had five pine trees die because a rapidly growing vine crept up them and essentially cut off the sun. I am now trying to eradicate the vines, but they root and spread under ground. I find the shoots and pull them out, only to have more show up!

An invasive species of ivy poses the same problem in the Seattle area. It wraps itself around trees and, left to do its thing, will climb the trees and essentially cover them, killing the trees.

 

[Harp]

Door-to-dooring by the Girl Scouts hasn't been done in our town in years due to parental panic. I miss it, because now I have to drive all around to find what store what they're selling in front of. Shortbread (or what in my day we called "trefoils") Is Life.

Girl Scout thin chocolate mints and peanut butter cookies head my list, anything else is good too.

Lorna Doone shortbread survival cookies I find always in stock at the hood CVS.

 

[GHT]

Yes, I know. Same in GB, ain’t it, and those other former colonies where they don’t know how to speak proper American?

Proper American? Does that mean we have to redefine words like biscuit?

The Old French word bescuit is derived from the Latin words bis (twice) and coquere, coctus (to cook, cooked), and, hence, means "twice-cooked." This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried out in a slow oven. This term was then adapted into English in the 14th century during the Middle Ages. The American biscuit is actually a scone.

 

[Edward]

And one of the best A-listers on The Lounge you are too, Edward.

Oh, now, flattery will get you everywhere with me!

Yes, I know. Same in GB, ain’t it, and those other former colonies where they don’t know how to speak proper American?

Yes. The UK jurisdictions (there are three separate jurisdictions in the UK - Scotland, NI, and England&Wales, Wales technically being part of England rather than a country in its own right per the Laws of Wales Acts 1536 & 1542) did some time back introduce the Solicitor-Advocate category, which is much more like the US Attorney, fulfilling both the traditional solicitor's role as well as being entitled to appear before all courts (solicitors are limited to Magistrates' Courts, which are very low-level). It's becoming more popular as it offers more job security, especially in NI where chambers don't exist and barristers are entirely out on their own. The traditional barrister role hasn't gone away, but I suspect over time we may well see a technical evolution towards a single professional classification equating to the US 'attorney', albeit that in practice I highly doubt we'll see many all-rounders but rather the bigger legal practices still employing people to specialise in either the advocacy or case-building side of things.

I always know a guy with a scouting age daughter. When 1 gets too old, another guy will have a daughter old enough. Over the years, I must have given those scouts $$$$. Whatever cookies which aren't selling as well, they can sell to me. I always buy a case, and then give the cookies away. I don't eat those cookies myself.

Boy Scouts don't seem to be able to market the value of their brand. None of the people that I know who have sons, participate in Boy Scouts. Almost as if it were out of fashion. For whatever reason, in The Big City, I don't even see Boy Scouts. If Boy Scouts sold Boy Scout Knives as a fundraiser, I would buy one.

That would be cool.... though it would last as long as it took for someone to be stabbed with a 'Scout knife', and then be dropped for PR reasons. Likely that's why it's never been done to begin with.

Uniformed organisations for boys do seem to be less common than once they were over here; in large part the problem is lack of male leaders, which in turn links to the popular stereotype of men who want to work with kids as 'suspect'.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I would say there are, called Bagels…

Bagels are boiled in water before baking, but never fried.

 

[tonyb]

Proper American? Does that mean we have to redefine words like biscuit? …

Perhaps so.

As Mark Twain put it, “There is no such thing as the Queen’s English. The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares.”

In the matter of language, change seems the only constant. Much as we might chafe at it (as I sometimes do), popular usage trumps.

As to “scone” …

I recall first hearing the word after moving to Seattle from Madison, Wisc. in the late 1960s. Scones were, and are, a tradition at the annual Western Washington Fair in Puyallup (pew-AL-up). Not so back in the Upper Midwest.

Would a Brit call that Puyallup delicacy a proper scone? Beats me. But if he didn’t, I’d counsel against making an issue of it.

When in Puyallup, do as the Puyallupans do.

 

[Hercule]

I think I first encountered scones in the early 80s, probably after I started college and, as I remember, when coffee shops started popping up. My first impression was that they were basically the same baking powder biscuit that I grew up on but with (usually) berries or raisins in it. Nice but nothing very special about them.

Aren't true English scones is more akin to what we would call an English muffin?

 

[HudsonHawk]

Last time I encountered the Girl Scouts while leaving the supermarket, the girl told me they were $5/box, but...she could let me have four boxes for $20. So I bought four boxes. I can smell a deal from a mile away.

 

[Hercule]

The boy scouts around here sell popcorn. No idea what it costs as I'm not interested. Back in the day when I was in scouts we sold lightbulbs.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The boy scouts around here sell popcorn. No idea what it costs as I'm not interested. Back in the day when I was in scouts we sold lightbulbs.

Around here they sell yard mulch. I made the mistake of buying it once. I'm still battling the weeds, like 10 years later. I told them I'll just give them the money, but please don't bring that weed seed back to my house.

 

[belfastboy]

Bagels are boiled in water before baking, but never fried.

rose water