"SEPARATED BY A COMMON LANGUAGE..." Idioms of English Speaking Countries

Correct, and as a young boy in a Jesuit school in Detroit it seemed very natural to me. However, I almost never hear that usage anymore, though ebeth says she still hears it in Toronto (I believe).

yes they still say " viaduct " in tranna .

The Bloor Street Viaduct is in the news every day in Toronto. It's a reference point for how far the Don Valley Expressway is backed up during the morning and afternoon commutes.

"southbound traffic is backed up as far as the Bloor Street Viaduct"

"northbound traffic is backed up from just past the Bloor Street Viaduct"

Commuters, using the subway from the east end of the city to get into the core of the city, travel in the level of the viaduct below the roadway.

Until a few years ago, it was one of the world's top ten suicide destinations.

the bloor-street viaduct - constructed in 1917 - is quite an imposing structure .
its official name is " prince edward viaduct " .



it was built in the grand style of the bank buildings - erected in those day to show " prosperity " of the city .

I don't know of anyone from Baffin Bay to Tierra del Fuego who calls themselves Americans - except those living in the United States.

An impressive structure.

I suspect "viaduct" was and is a Canadian usage. Certainly as reasonable as any of the terrms we use here - another example of interesting, but different regional choices.

We've recently discovered that suspenders means one thing in the US and Canada, but in England it is more like a garter belt. I have to wonder what "garter" means over there.

the english refer to suspenders as braces

There are different understandings, I surmise, about going to a college or university. This may be as much a generational thing here in the US as from national difference in school systems. I did go to college, and it was at a university, from which I graduated. Which is another matter, in that in recent years people graduate high school or college, not graduate from. I take that as generational language change.

I still remember one of my first jobs as a medical assistant. The RN would greet the patient with "Doctor will see you now", not only skipping "the", or, g'forbid, "a"... but a common jargon of those years in my area.

I have learned a lot re colloquialisms, as you have, Farmer, from discussions of english speakers from all over.

I used to refer to US americans once in a while, as a nod to all the rest, but it seemed forced and my efforts petered out. Now I just try to name specific countries as they show up in conversation.

i never think of north america and south america for the most part, it's canadians, americans and then the individual south american countries

Well, as it happens, my refrigerator is now called "coolio", but I still think of them - if not the very first word, which would be refrigerators - as ice boxes.

I've never run across that, ehBeth, but our circles of acquaintances vary. I have always tended to speak re country of origin rather than continent, not from any virtue of mine, but maybe re interest level re distinct food palates, culture, etc.

Huh, on where I'm from, I now just say "California". That can rile some people up right good.

Edgarb -
The fellow who asked me out to see a movie in seventh grade (Taza, Son of Chochise) - his father worked in the ice house..

I believe that the Canadians have been having some influence on the language here, especially in news broadcasting.
Pre-1970 "The two men spent three days at the hotel and then disappeared."
After 1970- The two men spent three days at the hotel and then
went missing."

Joe(poof)Nation

youre just being toff Joe. Does your middle name focus upon Poofster?.

Too right, gov'ner. I am that. Ah well, cheers then, I've got to get me old Mum's lorry over to the petro stand to have it's tyres rotated.

Joe(then it's off to the theatre)Nation

codswallop!

The only place I ever heard the word 'dilbert' in common usage was during a stint in the Navy, in the mid 1960s. Not that many years later, a comic strip received that for a title and a character name. I wonder if anybody else ran into it prior to the comic.

In those days (and earlier into the 1950's) "Dilbert" was the standard name for a screw-up student Naval Aviator in the Grandpa Pettibone column in the Naval Aviation News magazine. Some of his stuff was pretty funny.