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a T-bone steak...We don't seem to have them in the UK

We do, David, just they're not tremendously common (sirloin tends to be the cut of choice, followed by rump as the cheapo option, with fillet for very special occasions).

I had a T-bone recently in fact. Luvverly.

Had my first T-bone steak at least 15 years ago, though.


#82067 10/01/02 10:25 AM
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Before they could be made by machine, of course, marbles were very much more highly valued than they are nowadays. Hand-made marbles are still very collectible.

Here's a good page on valuable marbles, which also points out that the phrases "playing for keeps" and "knuckling down" originated in playing marbles:
http://www.irelandsantiques.com/articels/marbles.htm


It occurs to me that if you had a marble made out of marble, that would represent a lot of hard work by someone. To the extent that a hand-made marble was perfectly spherical that would make it especially prized.

We don't associate marbles with money, risk and gambling at all these days, but it's easy to see that once it would have been devastating to lose all your marbles.

Interesting that the USn usage of marbles phrases is slightly more wide-ranging than UK usage:
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=15594



#82068 10/01/02 10:36 AM
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Trailero it is, my Fab Fool. Even scarier down there than they is up here . Nothing scares me more while traveling down the freeway than a big rig doin' whatever he/she darn well pleases whether he/she speaks English, Spanish, French or whaddeva. [fount of more silver hairs-e]


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"We T-boned them but no one was hurt"

I'd have thought it sounded rude, and probably illegal.
If you said "Our car T-boned theirs" I'd have got the gist, but not necessarily accurately.

Not sure what the UK equivalent would be. Something boring like "we crashed into the side of their car.."


#82070 10/01/02 01:09 PM
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Now, over here (UK), semi-trailer would get you the blank stare, artic would be completely understood and accepted as the norm and 'tractor-trailer' would have everyone thinking you were nuts as everyone knows they're what you find on the farm, do a max of about 30mph (except for the new whizzy ones that do 45) and you certainly wouldn't want to do 7000+miles of the TCH in one!


#82071 10/01/02 04:34 PM
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Hereabouts, artic would be assumed to be a contraction of Arctic-Cat. The snobs would revile you for leaving out the first c and the rednecks would revile you for leaving out the cat.


#82072 10/01/02 04:54 PM
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artic

I bet it's not pronounced the same. Is it ar-TIC, just like ar-TIC-ulated? (As opposed to AR-tic.)


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In reply to:

Not sure what the UK equivalent would be. Something boring like "we crashed into the side of their car.."


I think most people would say that they'd hit a car broadside.

I've never heard this T-Bone thing till this thread, but it sounds like something that's been around for a long time. I always felt that way when listening to Ross Perot speak. He used expressions I'd never heard, but they sounded like they'd been around forever.


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Hoooo boy. Okay, in Zild it's a semi or a rig or an artic (we're a pretty confused lot, really).

The ones in the US are bigger in every way than the ones in Britland. The ones in Britland are governed to about 60mph. That, alone, is probably responsible for half the accidents I see on the way to and from my place of employment.

But you ain't seen nuffink till you've seen an Austraaaalian road train ....



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#82075 10/01/02 05:54 PM
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I've seen them up to about three or four trailers long in the US.

Note: only the first trailer is a semi-trailer; all the rest are full trailers.


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