I suppose one could also say that Henry Ford didn’t really invent the automobile, he just invented the motor that makes wagons go. 
Benz, I mean. Pre coffee.
Did anyone really say any of that?
Sure, I did. It was in the post that you quoted.
I still remember the first time I came across the word “queue,” it was that unusual to me (and my traveling companions.) Back in mid-1993, when I was 18 and about to start university, we had just flown into Aukland or perhaps Melbourne on our way to visit my cousins. I was traveling with a cousin and a friend of the family, one a couple years younger, one a few years older. At the passport check, there was a sign that said “QUEUE HERE.” It struck me and my traveling companions as the strangest looking word we’ve ever seen. I actually went up to a woman who worked there to ask her how to pronounce it, as, to us, it looked like something that should be said as “cue-you-ee.” She gave me a quizzical look and, with a “duh” in her tone of voice, said “cue.” “What does it mean?” “It means wait there until it’s your turn.” (Or something like that.)
Of course, the year after that, in college, I started seeing the word regularly, as when logging into telnet BBSes, you would often wait in a “queue” until there was enough room for you to log in.
My Dad, who worked in the motor industry all his life (thus explaining why I had the joys of growing up around Coventry), always called them “wheel trims”.
Huh? I always assumed it was the same in the USA. What is an American barbecue, then?
If you’re being precise with terms, it’s basically a form of hot smoking. It’s low and slow cooking, usually indirect, usually with an element of smoke. There are variations, but what they all have in common is cooking temps of under 300F (225F is probably the most common temp) and wood must be involved somehow. A representative barbecue dish and prep would be pork shoulder cooked indirectly over (or to the side of) a hickory wood fire. Pork chops cooked directly over coals would be “grilling,” not barbecuing.
That said, “barbecuing” is often used interchangeably with “grilling.”
I should also point out that that’s what I think of in terms of US/Southern barbecue. If the word is used in reference to another culture (like Korean barbecue or Hawaiian barbecue), I think of any type of cooking over a wood or coal fire, whether over a grill (like in Korean barbecue) or covered in a pit (like Hawaiian or Caribbean barbecue). Now, the word itself comes from barbacoa, a method of cooking that originally, AFIUI, involved digging a pit in the ground, starting a coal fire in it, wrapping the meat in leaves (maguey or plantain, I believe), putting it in the pit, covering it with earth, and digging it up many hours later, after it becomes slow-cooked and tender.
So, basically, the same low & slow idea stayed with traditional Southern barbecue, but with an element of wood smoke added. So, when I get “grilled chicken,” I expect a chicken that is grilled over coals or a hot wood fire. It will not have much of a smoky flavor to it, and it will not have the same deep reddish brown color associated with something that has been barbecued or smoked. “Barbecued chicken,” on the other hand, I expect to be smoky and a very deep reddish-brown. Grilled chicken will usually have a crispy skin, while barbecued chicken tends to have a more rubbery skin, due to the low and slow cooking process (although this can be ameliorated.) Most of all, though, it’s that grilled vs smoked flavor that makes the difference for me. (As much as I like barbecuing, I actually prefer my chicken grilled, in general.)
Now, the reason in my previous post I used hedge words like “most” and “usually,” is because there are styles of barbecue that are not quite as neat as “low and slow, indirect, with wood smoke.” There is barbecue that is cooked directly over wood, for example, but far enough away so the temps are still in the “low & slow” range for the meat being cooked, and there is enough smokiness imparted to distinguish it from grilling.
I think another Cream queue reference most people know is in the last line of “Badge.”
There are several levels of precision regarding the word “barbecue” as used in the United States.
The broadest level, which seems to be the one also understood outside the United States, includes: (1) A social event at which food is cooked outdoors, (2) An appliance used to cook outdoors (usually a charcoal or propane gas grill), (3) food prepared in such a manner, particularly meats, (4) a method of cooking (including using a grill).
Now, some of these definitions are used informally in the United States with varying degrees of frequency depending on location. However, personally speaking, I follow these rules (and I’m not southern):
— “Barbecue” is a method of cooking using smoking, not grilling.
— “Barbecue” is also the meat that has been prepared using the barbecue method.
— (a) Food that merely has “barbecue sauce” on it is not barbecue.
— The term “a barbecue” is always wrong.
— (a) Barbecue is made is a smoker, not on a grill.
— (b) A grill is not “a barbecue” (neither is a smoker, but in theory it could be)
— (c) A social event that involves cooking food outdoors is a cookout, not “a barbecue.”
If we’re going to be specific about words, you’re referring to New York City. “New York” is the state.
This is not true. “New York” can be either the city or the state, depending on context. In my ordinary conversations, it means the city. And according to the Associated Press stylebook, the city is referred to merely as “New York” with no further qualification, unless there is something specifically about the context that makes it ambiguous.
Saying “New York” by itself, when you are referring to the city alone, definitely requires further qualification. “New York,” by itself, is the name of the state.
The city officially uses “City of New York” on its website.
Simply, flatly, untrue, as a general proposition.
So what?
It’s moronic and it’s not “untrue” to the people who live in the state of New York.
They need to get over it and understand that the meanings of words—including names—are context-dependent. As a resident of a state hundreds of miles away, it’s of absolutely no relevance to me that someone what someone in White Plains or Schenectady or Buffalo understands by “New York” unqualified.
And, indeed, an international news organization nearly 170 years old whose whole purpose is to avoid unnecessary ambiguity has for as long as I’ve known determined that the default meaning of “New York” is the City of New York, allowing for the use of “New York City” or “New York state” when there is some reason to believe that “New York” by itself is ambiguous.
And I think you’ll find that if you go abroad, then most people will understand the primary meaning of “New York” to be the City of New York.
Things might be different in Rochester or Albany, but for the rest of us, the meaning of “New York” unqualified is rarely ambiguous. And when we mean the state, we say “New York state.”
As for “official” names, I’ll note that “State of New York” is the official name of the state, so it has no moral or other superior claim over “New York.”
OK so what about Washington?
I don’t understand what your question really is, but whatever it is, the answer will be that it’s also context-dependent.
AP style says “Washington, D.C.,” should always be used on first reference. “Washington” for the state is acceptable. “Washington state” can be used to dispel ambiguity, should there be any. “Seattle” is used without qualifier. Other cities in Washington are qualified: “Olympia, Wash.” (The AP doesn’t use two-letter postal abbreviations, which I loathe anyway.)
That’s what the standard is for American journalists writing for a national audience. In private conversation, those who live close to Washington, D.C., often say “Washington” without qualifying it, because we share the same context. Actually, locals are more likely to say “D.C.” or “the District,” the latter being the house style for local newspapers, I believe.
For years and years I always thought of Mr. Mustard as being nasty and unfriendly, just like a guy who would keep a 10-bob note (money of some kind or other, I knew) up his nose.