THE BRITISH THREAD II

'at makes me wonder! thaur shoods be only a body version ay hoo tae pronoonce it properly: guid!

Bawbees?

Actually I love the interview with Stanley Baxter when he talked about appearing on the Goodies. He complained that the Goodies feeble attempt at a Scottish accent consisted of them saying 'Hoots,' over and over again.

About as accurate as Dick Van Dyke.

What about bawbees? I think they went the way of groats.

It's amusing that people (especially those from SE England) think that accents are what other people have.

No, I had a holiday in Mexico, and was constantly accused of having an accent by American tourists. I used to live in Newcastle, so a pop over the border was a popular weekend excursion. I honestly didn't know what bawbees were, so thanks for enlightening me. It was mentioned a lot in the Broons and Oor Wullie annuals.

To me, it's a kind of joke currency, like shekels or moolah. Kind of deliberately folksy.

If they ever had a value, I don't know what it was. I suppose the question would respond to a googling.

A rhyme I heard many years ago

Here I am, wee Keekum Funny
I'm the man that's got the money
Pennies, ha'pennies, three-bawbees
I've got pouches doon tae ma' knees

Sound like it was a local name for a penny. Do you remember threepenny bits?

To me, it sounds like something that should be keeping company with a Ken doll.

I know that they are the main reason The Sun is the biggest selling paper in the UK. Seriously I do remember them, I also remember being able to buy a portion of chips for 6d.

A tanner looked 'wealthier' than two "Theppennies"

I think think that I remember fish'n'chips for about 1s 6d, including salt, vinegar and parts of yesterday's paper.


(The correct translation for Dreigroschenoper, btw, isn't really "The Three Penny Opera" but should be "The Three Groats Opera")

Mac the Knife is a fantastic song.

So it is, buddy. Here's the original version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ31UH91dYQ

I prefer this version.

Jeez - you've all got accents over there! Mostly I could understand - or sort of make a guess. In a car rental place in Scotland, however, I was totally at a loss. That fellow should have come with a babel-fish - or subtitles, or something

Why can't you talk properly, i.e. like me!

Where's Spendy? I thought he might have come in about the church in Ireland.

He's probably slipped on his bare-wood floors, going about the house in thick socks, and done himself a mischief.

Anyway I have another observation to make. Remember when you were little, and you cut your finger or skinned your knee? Elastoplast was the thing. Band-Aid for some.
Now that stuff used to stick like crazy. Even long after the bandage was pulled off (a major operation in itself) you still found little bits of the sticky stuff sticking to you, weeks after.
No longer. You put a plaster on nowadays, it'll come off if water gets anywhere near it.
I think it's designed that way now, so that you use more plasters. And it's not great for your cut healing, to continually be changing the dressing.
The manufacturers are conspiring against us.
Another diabolical liberty for me to get upset about.

Ordering fast food:

Wan plain bridie, an' an ingin' ane an' a'.

I had a similar experience at a chemist shop in Edinburgh. In retrospect, I'm sure the look on my face as that fellow tried to give me directions was comical.

Yep ... that's what the guy said. I asked him how to get to the Castle, and that's what he said.

Don't you folks have "New-Skin Liquid Bandage" over there?

What made you think that Mac? Had I come in I would have been expressing concern why you were interested in such sordid matters when there are so many interesting things going on. Such as silly old Hague recognising the rebel government in Libya just a few hours before they "executed" their commander in chief after a "period in detention" and the mushy, brown putrifying core in Media since women took it over.

And the debt crisis is fascinating. That's due to women taking everything over and nobody having the bottle to admit it due to having rolling pins held over their silly little heads.

Take a tip from dogs and lick your wounds and expose them to the air. Minor wounds I mean.