A friend of mine, whom I can vouch for as being authentically un-American, has written a British-American-British dictionary which will be published soon. You can see it here and review it here.

at least with a sausage roll you can sing: "It's a long way to the shop, if you wanna sausage roll!"

Is it wrong for a newbie to shudder at ACDC related puns? It's just that band ruined all my childhood attempts at listening to any channel that wasn't Classic FM.

Fay, yes, Eddie Izzard. Cake - or death?

Cake or death? I definitely follow the Marie Antoinette line of thinking on this one rather than the Lord Voldemort approach. "Let them eat death" just doesn't have that ring to it.

(You know, I adore Eddie Izzard, but upon reflection I don't know how much I fancy him. He's just too like me - it would be a Narcissism thing. And he's better at being glamorous than I am, damn him. Having one's bloke borrow one's frocks is one thing - having one's bloke look better in one's frocks than one does oneself...this I could see being a problem.)

Huh, I can see the amusement of "milk bar", but what about "drugstore" as a place with a soda fountain etc.? This is endlessly amusing to Unamericans.

But not all drugstores have soda fountains. (Actually, very few do, now.) To me, the weirdness is whoever decided that a drugstore would be a good place to put a soda fountain, but when I think about what's in a typical small town downtown area, the drugstore seems as logical a place as any.

t hazarding wild guess iirc, lots of soft drinks were initially marketed as 'health' drinks? Like Tonic water? Coke and the various other colas definitely were, and Dr Pepper still has the 'Dr' bit to its name, so it probably wasn't as much of a random crazy thing at the time.

Is it wrong for a newbie to shudder at ACDC related puns? It's just that band ruined all my childhood attempts at listening to any channel that wasn't Classic FM.

Hah! I grew up in Elizabeth, the freakin' heartland of Barnsey, Chisel and AccaDacca. I have two wooden legs b/c I had to gnaw off my real ones to escape hearing those clowns!

Hah! I grew up in Elizabeth, the freakin' heartland of Barnsey, Chisel and AccaDacca. I have two wooden legs b/c I had to gnaw off my real ones to escape hearing those clowns!

• whimper* So much suffering! I feel your pain, though I admit my experiences mostly occured in those few precious seconds between the initial tuning mishap and my desperate lunge at the dial once I realised my mistake. Not overwhelmingly damaging perhaps, but somtimes all it takes is a few guitar riffs...

What state/territory is Elizabeth in? My geography is oh-so-sadly inadequate, even in regards to my own country.

What state/territory is Elizabeth in?

California, at the moment.

I'll grab the kids -- Bloom, Farrell, Rhys-Meyers, so they don't get into any trouble.

Keep your hands off Rhys-Meyers. He's mine.

Thanks so much.

I think the people who made up Coke were looking for a cough remedy initially. They should have known they missed when it didn't taste bad, but maybe that's just me.

I think you'll find Rhys-Meyers is MINE, and I'll take Cillian Murphy while I'm at it, thank you very much. It's a twofer deal. Ewan can keep them in line.