#31384
06/12/2001 8:27 AM
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609
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addict
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609 |
pie a la mode for dessert
I am not trying to turn this into a food thread, HONEST. I know the phrase "a la mode" means "with ice-cream" in US, but why? Does the phrase have that meaning in other English speaking nations?
Rod
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#31385
06/12/2001 11:14 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Here's another set of words for the same thing: in our living room we have a couch, also called a sofa, or what my father would have called a davenport. There is also the recliner, but that's not quite the same thing.The very Canadian word for couch is chesterfield. Also, if you say couch, it has the Candian pronunciation of the 'ou' dipthong, that is, uh-oo instead of aah-oo! (Think Scottish accent.) We don't use "sofa" much. To Rod: I think we understand that "a la mode" is "with ice cream" but you only see it on menus. I would just say, pie and ice cream. Yum. 
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#31386
06/12/2001 12:54 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I can remember very vividly as an eight year old being told I must ask for "apple pie ala mode" to get my pie with ice cream on it. The serving person ignored my request for " apple pie with ice cream." Evidently snobs were so proud of knowing the French phrase that they ignored peasants who did not. My guess is that the phrase was intended to mean " in the fashionable manner ".
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#31387
06/12/2001 12:58 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
And there I was, imagining a pie shot full of holes by Mexicans... 
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#31388
06/12/2001 1:47 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear maverick: It took me just long enough to get that contrived pun, that I almost wished you had been riddled at the Alamo.
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#31389
06/12/2001 1:53 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Thanks, Dr. Bill  . I *had been blissfully unaware of what mav had been driving at.
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#31390
06/12/2001 4:40 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
I also have often wondered where the expression came from. When I first learned French, the question arose, pie a la mode de quoi? In the case of, e.g., tripes a la mode de Caen (tripe, Caen-style) you know what is what, but we don't know what style the ice cream is. I think your supposition is correct.
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#31391
06/12/2001 4:44 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Besides the sofa, there is also the smaller version known as a love seat, or settee (old fashioned term here). Thanks to one of my wife's strange notions of interior decoration we were, at one time, the only people I ever heard of who had a living room with a sofa and a love seat but no chairs.
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#31392
06/12/2001 6:47 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Allegedly-- Ice cream-- is an american dessert-- there have been "cool" or Iced desserts going back to antiquity-- but none other than Dolly Madison is said to have "introduced" ice cream to the world-- and putting ice cream on pie was the "all american dessert" (so the missing word is a la mode american.) This, while the US government was still in Philadelphia. Philadelphia style ice cream is a custard (cream and milk* cooked with egg till it thickens, and then instead of being baked--it is chilled and frozen.) Most ice cream today does not have this "custard' base. (*more cream than milk in the mixture)
and thanks Bob for spigot-- i was beginning to think i was the only one who had ever used the word! I would say SPIG (like pig)ott.
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#31394
06/13/2001 2:43 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Helen dearest, not being in a curmudgeonly mood this morning, I shan't say anything about your use of an English word in a French phrase, but I have to ask you, in the interests of historical veracity, didn't Mrs. Madison spell her name Dolley? I have often wondered about that. [apologizing for nitpicking emoticon]
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#31395
06/13/2001 4:37 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
oh-- i think the commercial ice cream is Dolly but i could be wrong about that, too.
aside from ice cream-- she is famous for saving the portait of George Washington when some of our neighbors across the pond burned the capital building in 1812...
and i already mangle spelling in english-- i am not even going to pretend i know the correct ending for american to make it french-- but i do remember reading the style that pie a la mode refers to --is to pie american style (ie with ice cream)
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#31396
06/15/2001 12:45 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 38
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 38 |
the only people I ever heard of who had a living room with a sofa and a love seat but no chairs .
How about living room with only chairs.. Currently I'm not willing to spend the time or $ right now to get a couch/loveseat/futon etc (whatever). Tommorrow we will be in the house 1 month.
CJ
CJ
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#31397
06/15/2001 3:03 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Thanks to one of my wife's strange notions of interior decoration we were, at one time, the only people I ever heard of who had a living room with a sofa and a love seat but no chairs.
If that's strange, I'm positively bizarre. The TV area of our rec room as a sofa and a loveseat, but no chairs. The living room has a loveseat and chairs, but no sofa. The library has a loveseat and chairs, but no sofa. The garden room has a settee and no chairs, sofas or loveseats. The sun room has chairs, but no loveseats, sofas or settees.
The family room has (TADA!) a sofa and chairs, but no loveseat. I'm thinking that this is the official configuration?
Remotely tying this in with language - let's discuss decorative terms.
The exterior of my house is traditional Tudor, and the interior is traditional traditional. The dining room is Queen Anne, but the living room is closer to French Traditional, while most of the rest of the house is Eclectic. I have a friend who built a Craftsman house, and has furnished it in that style as well.
Jackie: I know that you have a split-level house. Let me guess: American colonial-influenced interior?
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#31398
06/15/2001 3:24 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
Sparteye tells us about:
rec room
living room
library
garden room
sun room
family room
And you don't think the first part of your post was about language? I could never keep all those rooms straight (much less clean).
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#31399
06/15/2001 3:36 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Too true, Hyla! My sitting room not only has no sofa, no love seat and no chairs - it even has no roof!
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#31400
06/15/2001 3:46 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
Ah, the joys of the big room with no walls!
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#31401
06/15/2001 4:09 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Yeah - unparalleled views of the sunsets as the sun makes midday for Helen, but damp when raining OTOH, there are five families of sparrows and others making their nests in the stone gable destined to be the sitting room wall, so I don't feel too bad about the delay right now. Ask me again by Christmas...
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#31402
06/20/2001 2:04 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
A-ha! My neighbor's house is for sale, and there is an online tour of it available, which shows a walk-out construction. In this case, the house is build in farmhouse style. Go to http://www.tomieraines.com/listings/details.asp?mls=59497&type=RESSee how the front of the house looks like a two-story? Now, click on the button on the right of the screen which says "virtual tour." The first view you are given is a 360 from the front exterior. (Note the house far in the distance, viewed just right of the lamp post by the driveway - that's home!) Then, using the dropdown menu, select "backyard." The 360 view of the exterior from the rear shows a three-story house, the result of a walk-out lower level. (Also note the pond, which a certain son found irresistible until he was grounded but good for running away to it. Harrumph.) You can also get a glimpse of the walk-out aspect from the interior by selecting the family room view.
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#31403
06/20/2001 2:59 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
too bad Mav-- as the sun sets in your sitting room, i am sitting (at least on weekend and holidays) in my gazebo out of the mid day sun.. It has sconces for the cintronella candles, and tables and chairs, (no couch, but it does have a lounge chair) a windchime, and 4 hanging planters.. the sunny side has 2 ivy geraniums, the shady, 2 fuschia. the shade is from (depending on the time of day), an giant oak (at least 75 feet tall) an maple (not even 20 feet tall) or a elm-- about 40 foot tall-- but a bit down hill-- so its seems only a few feet taller than the maple. and the gazebo has a small shelf with a resin copy of a Degas sculpture.. (what room is complete with out art?) around the gazebo are plantings of hosta, sweet williams, tiarellas, ferns, iris, and spring bulbs. It is one of the nicest part of my house!
I think about buying a portable heater so i could use it more in the winter.. but i do use it on sunny days in the winter-- leaveless trees admit more sun, and the concrete floor soaks up the heat from the sun.
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