Help from anyone stateside that knows UK 'culture'

[Clinton]

Sometimes I wonder if this crabfoot character is actually several people. No one person could have so much of knowledge about such varied topics!

[Kay]

So you were born wearing khaki? And yer mammy shopped at the NAAFI? LowFreeze was part of the Wm Low chain, which was all over Scotland until Tesco bought them out in the 90s.

No. I was not born wearing khaki. In fact, I won a "Bonny Baby" competition and had my portrait painted as a prize. I'll post the bloody thing here just to show you.

And, no, we didn't shop at the NAAFI - we usually got our 'tea' from the chippie. There was a Wm Low in town but it was much too far away compared to the local corner shop. Supermarkets were never part of my life until I was much older.

OK, here's me - not wearing khaki.

kay-beauty-contest.jpg

[flipfilter]

Sometimes I wonder if this crabfoot character is actually several people. No one person could have so much of knowledge about such varied topics!

Thanks Crabfoot, but Clinton has a point - you do know a LOT about supermarket history! Impressive skill to have though :-)

[crabfoot]

Thanks Crabfoot, but Clinton has a point - you do know a LOT about supermarket history! Impressive skill to have though :-)

Acksherly, I got the Aldi stuff from Wikipedia - but what I know about the birth of Morrisons Supermarkets isn't on the web. As a 6 year old I was a bit young to understand what was going on, and I was told not to talk to anyone about my aunt's conversations with Mrs Morrison (amazingly, I didn't), but I was in the room because Mrs Morrison loved children, and my aunt didn't have any. Nuff said.

[Dave McM]

The "European" supermarkets came into the UK in the 1970s, the first being Netto (Danish), followed by Aldi and LIDL (German). I was told that these two were once owned by the same family, and were split to form two companies headed by two brothers.

I used to do all my shopping at Aldi as a student over in Germany in the 1980s, but I'd never heard of them before then. (Not even in the 1970s when I first went to Germany as a "scaly brat". My mother did shop in the NAAFI.) I hadn't realised that they made it to the UK so early - I'd never heard of them being in the UK until Kay and I returned briefly in 2005.

German family-run companies seem to have a habit of doing a "two brothers, two companies" split. Adidas/Puma did the same thing. Only less amicably, from the sounds of it.

I'm not that familiar with US supermarkets. The Walmart/ASDA link sounded sort of right to me - ASDA has always seemed a bit downmarket compared to Tesco and Sainsbury's. But the mention of Walmart always reminds me of Kmart, and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man: "Kmart sucks".

As for Jeremy Kyle, the impression I get is that it's more or less designed to appeal to the people who enjoy watching Jerry Springer. Which in a funny sort of way, I did - to observe him and his/the producers' manipulation of the scenario. (He always seemed to have a permanent faux expression of bemusement when things started getting heated.)

Ken, how largely do nationwide newspapers figure on the US scene? I've been under the impression that people tend to turn to their local newspapers first and that there are comparatively few US-wide ones. One which did spring to my mind, though, was the World Weekly News - a bit like the Sunday Sport in the UK, but just the bizarre stories ("World War II Bomber found on Moon!") without the sex.

[KenW3]

Ken, how largely do nationwide newspapers figure on the US scene? I've been under the impression that people tend to turn to their local newspapers first and that there are comparatively few US-wide ones. One which did spring to my mind, though, was the World Weekly News - a bit like the Sunday Sport in the UK, but just the bizarre stories ("World War II Bomber found on Moon!") without the sex.

The only -real- nationwide newspaper is USA Today. The New York Times made a push to establish nationwide home delivery, but that failed in most areas.

The Weekly World News is "the world's only reliable news". In addition to their sometimes distressing reality stories, the publication has an uncanny knack for accurate prediction, such as knowing Facebook will be shut down in October of this year. Most newspapers cannot possibly compete with their research department.

Local and regional newspapers are failing here, as would be expected, but I do read them on occasion (along with other regional world news) at ThePaperboy.com

[crabfoot]

Most newspapers cannot possibly compete with their research department.

The Sunday Sport, which is a ridiculous excuse for a newspaper (mentioned by DaveMcM) prints horse racing tips purportedly obtained from the spirit of a dead jockey by a clairvoyant. The tips are quite good, but the Racing Post refuses to include a dead jockey in its Tipsters Table, so one is unable to make any long term comparisons. Now that's what I call research!

[succor]

From: Why is a Military Dining Hall called “Mess”?

The origins of the word “mess” comes from the Old French word “mes”, meaning portion of food, which was taken from the Latin verb “mittere”, which means “to put” or “to send”, with the primary sense of “a meal put on the table.”

This meaning of “mess” then appeared in English during the 13th century, and was often used specifically with liquid or cooked dishes, like soup or porridge. And by the 15th century, the same word “mess” was used to describe any group of people who dined together. This is why the military dining hall today is called a “mess hall.”

I make no claims on the accuracy of the answer.

[crabfoot]

I make no claims on the accuracy of the answer.

It really is not worth the bother, the word has gone through so many changes from the medieval version - from a dish of food, to a group of people gathering to eat the food, to an informal gathering for food, to a place where the food was served, to the behaviour of those eating, to the state of the place after they have eaten, to the general state of a place where people have just eaten, etc. u.s.w. ...

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'