I seem to recall that British fish and chip shops were specifically forbidden from using newspapers as wrapping, for hygiene reasons, as long ago as the eighties.
I remember that because, when Princess Diana was engaged to Prince Charles, the media wrote about her that her favourite food was "fish and chips from a proper fish and chip shop wrapped in newspaper" -- thereby giving the impression that either:
- The whole thing was complete bullshit, or more disturbingly
- The Princess was so sheltered from the real world she was getting fake fish and chips, rewrapped in specially-sanitised newspaper
But John, how do you know it wasn't her saying "My favorite food is fish and chips wrapped in a newspaper, and damn them for not making it anymore!"?
Oh, I don't think so, it was just one of those things which was meant for us to think "oh, she's just a girl-next-door really, god bless her, she even eats fish and chips just the way we eat it" which fell horribly flat.
We had one of those when George W. Bush went to a grocery store and then freaked out over the scanner machine thing. He acted like it was a space ship or something.
You mean George H.W. Bush, right, Rio?
Yeah, that was the father - not the son-of-a-Bush.
Oh, whoops. Yes. I just accidentally typed that W. in there. Maybe he put a spell on my typing fingers.
Don't worry Rio. You gave me an excuse for saying Son-of-a-Bush which always gives me an unreasonable degree of satisfaction.
Whiting is a fish? I always thought it was just whitefish.
Elena's husband and I have been tackling this.
Whiting is probably a regional name for a particular fish as yet determined. I practically lived on it when I was a kid in Florida.
