Does she always refer to your uncle that way?
The “what’s Christianity” discussions sound like the battles between the Big Endians and the Little Endians!
As a kid, I heard my minister said “Watch out. Labels are libels…”
Regarding the spelling and pronunciation of victuals
Spelling altered early 16c. to conform with Latin, but pronunciation remains “vittles.”
The identity of a woman who helped the inhabitants of a Scottish island purchase their home remains a mystery. If I were insanely rich, I think this kind of secret generosity would be a lot of fun.
So how was the British Victualling Board pronounced?
All victualling for the fleet was put into the hands of the director of victualling who was a member of the Admiralty secretariat.
This website, How to pronounce victualling in British English says it would be pronounced the same way Granny would - [VIT] + [UHL] + [ING].
This is a bit niche, but stick with it, it may make you smile.
I’m not a big football (soccer) fan, but there’s a game on TV this coming Sunday that I’m tempted to watch. A bit of background - the (English) FA Cup (Football Association Challenge Cup - oldest national football competition in the world) is a knock-out competition open to every club in the league system governed by the Football Association* - the vast majority of entrants are non-professional. The way it works is that the little clubs play in the “Qualifying Rounds”; and then the top 32 little clubs get to play against proper professional clubs in the main competition. The current FA Cup champions are Manchester City, who beat Manchester United 2-1 in the final.
So on Sunday (Interesting Random Fact):
Charlton Athletic (professional team who were FA Cup winners in 1947) will play Cray Valley Paper Mills (non-professionals who… yeah, that’s it - who??)
Here is their charming website. Their last home game (October 23rd) was against Littlehampton Town and drew a crowd of 104 (one hundred and four).
Cray Valley Paper Mills FC, Eltham SE London. “Stadium” capacity 1000.
I wish them well on Sunday. I may even watch.
j
* - with a few caveats - the wiki details them: FA Cup - Wikipedia
Like many Americans, I learned about this from Ted Lasso. I absolutely adore the concept. Are there any good stories about little teams actually beating one of the big boys? I assume the big pro clubs have fun with it and don’t kick the shit out of the little guys.
Once in a while… and that’s why Cray Valley Paper Mills FC are on the telly - just in case this is the day when the tiniest of the tiny pulls it off. The commentary inevitably runs along the lines of “Nice tackle by the fullback - who’s day job is postman…” - and so on. It’s an odd little English tradition (and celebration, really)
j
ETA: some recent stories:
There’s always this one, which gave rise to one of the greatest headlines ever :-
Are American basketaball followers the only people in the world who normally pronounce “Celtic” that way?
Wow, that headline writer would have been kicking himself if he’d missed an opportunity that good. In his whole career, he was only going to get one shot at it.
No, there are Scottish soccer fans who pronounce it that way, too.
Considering that the British have a word spelled “Worcestershire” and pronounced “wurst-er”, they’d be the last people I would look to for pronunciation guides.
“wooster” idnit?
Well, Received Pronuniation is non-rhotic, so “wurst-er” would be about right.
Worcester is pronounced wooster.
And Leicester is pronounced “Lester.”