The Town Hall Archives

Jared · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 8:41 pm Post subject:

Because they were uneducated, they probably made no attempts to standardize their language, so they eventually adopted England's standardized formats. New Zealand, Canada, etc., basically the same way. Since they stayed in the commonwealth, the standardization from Great Britain eventually became accepted.

hawkeye · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 10:37 pm Post subject:

Most countries that speak English speak "King's" English, where as American's speak American English... remember were lazy.

Felicity Carden · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 2:38 am Post subject:

Yep, American's are very lazy... *is typing with a broomstick handle and doing quite nicely I might add*

LOL!!! Sorry, made me think of The Simpsons! My magic typing wand! ^_^

Gandalf · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:45 pm Post subject:

Again, even if that's the case, it goes back to America wanting to be separate from England. Why didn't we just accept the standardized formats that every other English speaking country adopted? We wanted to stand up and say "We are not part of the Brittish Empire" so we did it by changing our spellings, etc. Not that this is neccesarily bad mind you, but the orignal discussion was French Fries, are calling "French Fries" Freedom fries (or whatever rediculous name you come up with) worth standing up and being different??? I for one just don't think so. Let's be different by having the safest, richest country in the world, not by resorting to pathetic name changes to prove our points.

Gandalf · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 5:09 pm Post subject:

Back to the original discussion "Freedom Fries". I've changed my mind on this issue. I think we should change all of our foods/other that have to do with any nation other than ours. Here's some ideas:

Canadian (as in bacon) - Capatilist
Belgium (as in waffles) - Democracy
English (as in muffins) - Ally (since they're our only real ally)
German (as in chocolate) - Liberty (okay, so I stole it)
Indian (tacos) - Independence
Italian (seasoning) - Constitution
French (fries, toast, etc.) - Freedom
Chinese (checkers) - Army (let's honor our military by naming food after them!)
Mexican - Merry
Russian (roulette) - Rights (as in Bill of)
Spanish (truffle, omlets) - Sincere
Swedish (meatballs) - Shock and Awe (have you ever had one???)
Dutch (chocolate) - Navy
Swiss (cheese) - Air Force
Danish (rolls) - Coast Gaurd

Whew! That's a start anyway. Tell me what you think!

Am I making my point?

Jared · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 5:41 pm Post subject:

Okay, let's see... Allow me to go through your list, one thing at a time...

Canadian (as in bacon) - Capatilist
No... Be realistic. Canada is far from capitalistic. Let's call a spade a spade and a bacon a bacon or whatever. We can call it Socialistic Bacon. The only problem is that many people apply the same name to pork-laden bills coming out of congress. Oh well... they both have about the same value, so what's the difference?

Belgium (as in waffles) - Democracy
Democracy? Belgium? As they say, the French w[h]ine, the German was one sour Kraut... and the Belgian waffles. Such a country shouldn't be referred to in such glowing terms.

English (as in muffins) - Ally (since they're our only real ally)
I'm fine with that one.

German (as in chocolate) - Liberty (okay, so I stole it)
Yep, you stole it. But let's name realistically. You apparently despise the use of "liberty" and "freedom" in renaming, so let's name them in "honor" of their home country. Let's be nice to Germany. Think of something positive that they've done as a nation. Uh... umm... how about... uh...

Indian (tacos) - Independence
Indian? Wouldn't this be more MEXICAN? If so, we can call them Invasion Tacos.

Italian (seasoning) - Constitution
Fine. After all, Italy's constitution isn't all that bad. Not good, but not bad either. Besides, there's not much to say about Italy. Except that all roads lead to Rome. But that's not true. I've tried walking down my road dozens of times and I've never ended up in Rome. They must have moved it.

French (fries, toast, etc.) - Freedom
Freedom. Something France has never truly had.

Chinese (checkers) - Army (let's honor our military by naming food after them!)
All right, I suppose. I don't know. Also, wasn't this all about food? I'd have to be pretty hungry to eat checkers.

Mexican - Merry
Huh?

Russian (roulette) - Rights (as in Bill of)
Except that in this country, we don't have the "right" to play what you now brand "Rights Roulette."

Spanish (truffle, omlets) - Sincere
Sincere? Well, fine. They are on our side on the Iraq issue, so I'm okay with being nice to them.

Swedish (meatballs) - Shock and Awe (have you ever had one???)
Shock? Yes. Awe? Not exactly.

Dutch (chocolate) - Navy
Whatever.

Swiss (cheese) - Air Force
Swiss cheese. A terrible description of our Air Force, a fitting one of theirs. Actually, their Air Force is better illustrated by just the holes - the nothingness.

Danish (rolls) - Coast Gaurd
Our Coast Gaurd boats don't roll. When they do, it's a problem.

Felicity Carden · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 9:00 pm Post subject:

*glares at Jared and holds up her Spork of Justice* Be nice, Jared!

Gandalf · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 9:55 pm Post subject:

Jared, obviously none of those adjectives were describing the country for which they replaced (except English and Ally). Freedom doesn't describe France (France will never be free until they become a Bible believing protestant nation) and I was poking fun at the whole rediculous idea of renaming French Fries "Freedom Fries". The mentality is not to describe the nation (or else we would call the "barbarian fries", "pagan fries" or howabout "morally bankrupt fries"?) but to replace a food (or other things like "French Kissing") that is supposedly honoring that nation to replace it with an adjective that describes our nation.

hawkeye · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2003 7:59 am Post subject:

Gandalf: The point behind changing the name if French fries isn't because the name supposedly brings honor to anyone, but it is the mindset of "The French will go out of their way to shame us, we will go out of ur way to avoid them." What is wrong with that? It is more than faiir, because weare not punishing the French people (or governmennt), but we are making the statement we aren't going to ignore their opposition.

rosie · Inquisitive Member Joined: 07 Jan 2003 Posts: 1197

here's my not so humble opinion. The ablity of people on this board to take such a non-issue, ridiculous subject into a big deal is amazing. I not only knew names where that important, but I am truly amazed at how much "meaning" you can find behind them!!! This is rather amusing Wink