[/quote]
Whenever I hear people say stuff like this I’m all like “hey! let me borrow you a grammar textbook!” Thankfully, I encounter less and less people saying stuff like this; my efforts must be working!
I never encountered borrow as a substitute for loan until I had a girlfriend from Minnesota. I still can’t wrap my head around how this came to be a thing.
[/quote]
I had a boss who was a stickler about “loan” and I picked up the issue. I never say “Can I loan you a book?” anymore. It’s “Can I lend you a book?”
Very common here in Chicago, as well. For us, I’m guessing Polish influence, but it could be any of a number of languages. In Polish, the word is the same for both borrow and lend, pożyczyć. You can easily figure out in context based on the prepositions or cases being used. In German, it’s similar with leihen. “Borrow” being used for both “borrow” and “lend” seems perfectly logical to me, as you have other grammatical clues as to whether the word is being used to me “borrow” or “lend.” At least, there’s never been confusion in my dialect as to what the “borrow me” construction means.
Thanks for the fun digression about Caesars, bloody beers, etc. All regional drinks I’d never heard of. I’ve tried to live most of my life south of the snow line.
Seems I said the right thing for the wrong reason. I thought you’d eaten a big salad after a too-long day and hence were undernourished which caused those silly typos. So I tongue-in-cheek suggest drinking dinner might have worked better for you.
Yeah, red beers are a different thing – they also sometimes go by the name red eye or red rooster. Then there is the very popular Mexican drink called Michelada, which is like a spiced-up version of a red beer/red eye or a beer-based version of a Bloody Mary or Bloody Caesar (micheladas are quite commonly made with clamato or there’s a shrimp-flavored tomato juice whose name is escaping me – wait – camaronazo). Beer + tomato-type juice + Worcestershire + lime + hot sauce (though sometimes you might find Maggi seasoning or chamoy in there as well – recipes vary). Often served in a salt- or tajin (chile-lime)- rimmed glass
Molson and Labatt’s aren’t exactly explosions of flavor, either. They’re all kind of the same to me: watered-down (flavorwise) North American light lagers. (And I do believe Budweiser is the best selling beer in Canada.)
Your comment worked anyway because I thought you were suggesting that Scotch is a better drink than a Caesar, an opinion to which I suppose one is entitled.
A bit of history of its origins here. Various forms of drinks based on vodka and a blend of tomato and clam juice have been around for a while under various names, but the Caesar as such is a Canadian invention, created at what is now the Westin Hotel in Calgary to celebrate the opening of a new Italian restaurant. It’s so popular in Canada that it’s often considered Canada’s national cocktail, and it’s surprising how little known it is in the US. I’ve sometimes absentmindedly asked for it in a US restaurant and had the waitperson look at me in bewilderment, like I thought I was in a Star Wars cantina and had just asked for a Dagobah Slug Slinger.
Properly made, it (the Caesar, not the Dagobah thing) is a very harmonious spicy mix of flavors even for folks who couldn’t imagine ever drinking clam juice by itself. According to the article, its inventor, Walter Chell, said his inspiration came from the traditional Italian dish Spaghetti alle vongole, spaghetti with tomato sauce and clams. The spicing and overall effect has been compared to a Bloody Mary, but to my palate it’s a totally different drink with a much lighter, more complex and refreshing taste.
I find the thing about Bud hard to believe, but I’ve read that, too. To be fair, though, it’s Budweiser brewed in Canada, which is probably a totally different animal. The stereotypical Canadian view is that mass-produced actual American beer is essentially watered-down horse piss. I’m not much of a beer drinker but people I know who are tend to favor some of the myriad of craft beers produced by the many microbreweries around here. Undoubtedly there are many good craft beers in the US, too, but Canadian beer in general is regarded in Canada in the same spirit as the Caesar, hockey, snow, the maple leaf, and politely saying “sorry” all the time, often for no discernible reason.
Oh, you guys do have plenty of good beers out there. It’s just that most of that mass market stuff tastes not that far unlike any other American macrobrew to me. (Though I will admit, I’ll take a Labatts or Molson Canadian any day over a Bud or Miller. They are slightly better than those.)
I really doubt that. When I was in Scotland back in '96, Budweiser was becoming somewhat popular there, and, I swear, it tasted pretty much like the stuff back home. If there was a difference, I couldn’t tell. I don’t think Budweiser needs to change much. It’s clearly popular for a reason (it’s an easy drinker with mass appeal) and Budweiser has the juggernaut of advertising, marketing, distribution, etc., behind it. As I said above, I’ll take Molson and Labatt’s over a Bud or Miller, but the difference isn’t all that much in terms of flavor, at least not to me (and I do drink a lot of beer). If Bud is watered down horsepiss, then Molson or Moosehead or Labatts is only slightly less watered down horsepiss (though, alcoholwise, they all rank in at around 5% abv.) My cousin used to bring back cases of the stuff when he went to Canada, and I was always like, why bother? It’s hardly distinguishable from BudMillCoors mass market beers here in the US.
" Industry statistics indicated that in 2015, beer was the country’s most popular alcoholic beverage and the products brewed in Canada held an 85 per cent share of the domestic market. The top selling style of beer in Canada, by far, is the pale lager. This type is also called North American Style Lager (by the Canadian Brewing Awards, for example.) In 2016, the best-selling brand was Budweiser with its products manufactured in Canada."
Also worth mentioning: although pale lager is very popular, there are also many mass-produced robust ales in Canada, in addition to all the craft beer. I remember when I was a kid, my dad usually drank the famous Molson Export ale. Back in my beer-drinking days the mass-produced stuff I favored was the eponymous Molson Canadian. Never was a big fan of Labatts.
From Wikipedia: " Actual Monkeys … Not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five total pages largely consisting of the letter ‘S’, the lead male began bashing the keyboard with a stone, and the monkeys followed by soiling it. …"
If you’re contradicting me, I wasn’t arguing that Budweiser wasn’t manufactured in Canada for the Canadian market. My point was that I doubt it was a “totally different animal.”
I can’t authoritatively say since I’ve never done a direct comparison, but I do recall from my days of beer-drinking and also a great deal of business travel that I found most American mass-produced beer quite watery and bland. TBH, it wasn’t actually “bad” so much as bland. What sticks in my memory is Canadian beer being closer to the typical European style, like English and German beers.
To me, the Canadian beers I’ve had are probably closest to something like Yuengling here in the US. Still North American lager, but lighter than its European counterparts (and usually made with corn or rice adjuncts). Molson Canadian, for example, is definitely an adjunct lager and contains corn syrup in addition to barley, hops, yeast, water. Bud uses rice syrup. Miller uses corn. I’d guess Labatts uses adjuncts, but I can’t find any definitive ingredient list. Most traditional European brands use neither. The adjuncts give the beer a lighter flavor and are also cheaper.
ETA: Anyhow, how in the heck did we get from grammar peeves to Canadian beer?
I think it had something to do with big Caesar salads…and the horrors of making a Canadian National Mixed Drink with beer. And devolved from there. AFAIC, you all are welcome to ALL the beer, ALL the tomato juice and certainly ALL the clam juice. Just remember, red beer is still a thing and Cornhuskers claim it. The football season lasts 5 months here and that’s a lot of red beer drinking going on. Sheesh.
