When Sarah Palin and her husband named their daughter Bristol they obviously did not know that Bristol is the Cockney (London) rhyming slang for "Titty" coming from the football (soccer) team Bristol City.
The only other Titty I can think of is Titty Walker in Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" stories, and she was based on a real little girl, Mavis Altounian, who known as Titty in her family on account of her fondness for her "titty-bottle" when she was a baby.
Poor Bristol Palin, an unmarried mum-to-be. :-(
Gabi
Comments
Yeah, but . . .
We don't talk funny like that here in the U.S.
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
That's
a matter of opinion, y'all!
Angharad
Angharad
Is not -
we talk funny in other ways here.
Story idea
That sounds like a good hook for a silly story.
A recently transplanted Yank buys an inferior toothbrush at a chemist in a shopping centre and goes back to complain, but gets his right and left confused and ends up in the wrong place, the local franchise of "Spells B We," a British cousin to that notorious establishment found occasionally in shopping malls on the left side of the pond.
The shop assistant looks up as he enters.
He says, "I'd like to complain about this toothbrush I bought yesterday."
"You say you bought that 'ere yesterday?"
"Yes. Now I understand that you Brits have a reputation for inferior dental hygiene, but I refuse to sacrifice my appearance just to fit in."
"It's just not possible that you were 'ere yesterday. We weren't 'ere yesterday."
"Now don't give me any of that nonsense. You're clearly an established shop, and I demand satisfaction. Now I want you to take this back and give me one with larger bristles." He spoke slowly and carefully, enunciating every consonant.
"Larger bristols you say? Per'aps you did come to the right shop after all."
"Yes. And I refuse to leave until I've got bristles at least three times larger than these!"
"Yes," he cried, "bristles!
I want big, lush magnificent bristles!"
Actually Jennifer, this sounds perfect for DRABBLE THEATRE pretty much as is.
Slap an introduction on there explaining the central pun (which wouldn't count
toward the word total, being in italics, or even above the title), and then
do some heavy pruning & word substitution. The actual transformation could
be left up to the readers to imagine, with a suitably fate-sealing last line.
Although it's also nice & comical right where it is. Or it could be part of a whole
series of "divided by a common language" magical transformation drabbles. Like the
expression KNOCK ME UP, which means awaken me in the UK and something else in America...
~~hugs, Laika
What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Oh, my gosh...
I don't know if I am smart enough to be here? Can I have some of that weed?
Gwen
Would she feel a right Bristol?
I loved your embryo drabble, Jennifer, and agree with Laika 100%. True to Bernard Shaw's well known saying that Britain and America are two countries divided by a common language.
I wonder if anyone will ever tell young Bristol what her name means. If they do, will she blush or just feel a right Bristol!
Hugs,
Gabi
Gabi.
Who Is Sarah Palin?
Is she related to Michael? It could be worse you know. The girl could have been named Betty Swollocks or Mary Hinge. What chance would she have then?
Joanne
nominee
Sarah Palin is expected to be officially nominated as the vice presidential candidate by the Republican Party this week. Bristol is her unwed pregnant teenage daughter.
and the Alaskan governor's mansion
...is a big geodesic structure known as the Palindrome :)
What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Common Language?
What does an American clerk do?
It goes tick-tark.
Boom-Boom
I'm not even going to sign that. I'll be hunted down!
Could be worse
"Fanny" used to be a fairly common name. IIRC, Fanny was the name of Robert Goddard's wife.
Aardvark
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
I had an Aunt Fanny
When I was a child I had an Aunt Fanny—she was actually Frances, but Fanny had been an affectionate shortening of the name since 19th century Victorian times or earlier.
It seems to have fallen out of use in recent years due, I suppose, to fanny being used as a slang word for vagina, (or pussy).
In those happy childhood days I had an elder (girl) cousin who, from time to time would, much to my embarrassment, call me Fanny Fanackerpan in front of all my friends!
Gabi
(blushing at the very memory)
Gabi.
Aunt Fanny
is now running a restaurant in Berkeley, California:
http://www.cafefanny.com/
where they have many delectable items on the menu, not
just Fanny. I have a box of Café Fanny's Organic Granola
before me at this very moment and it is simply delicious,
although a bit dear...
One can purchase this, and many other Fanny memorabilia, online.
Cheers,
Puddin' (No relation)
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Slang...
I believe that 'drunk' is the English word with the most slang synonyms. That has to be followed closely by the various human sex organs and secondary sex characteristics.
But my new home town is slang for breasts? That's a new one on me.
By the way, I live in Bristol, Michigan, USA, not the original Bristol. It was a one horse town until we sold our horse (I'm not kidding.) There is no property officially platted to Bristol, unless you count the half acre or so that contains the Dover township hall. I don't know why they even call it a town. If you blink, you'll miss it. The road isn't even widened, nor is the speed limit reduced from the standard 55 MPH. Aside from the township hall, we have one store/gas station (the Bristol Store,) two churches, and a private ten acre parcel (owned by the owners of the Bristol Store) that is used by people who want to ride horses or snowmobiles on the trails in the Manistee National Forest (bring your own horse or snowmobile. LOL)
Ray
The only other Titty...
Well, there is the rather rude comment yelled by rowdy Jewish boys
in Brooklyn at the Catholic kids, whilst making appropriate exaggerated
gestures, "Kop, schmuck, titty*, titty!"
Puddin'
-----------
* It really should be "Tsitskeh, tsitskeh," but even
yeshiva boys are not unaware of the larger culture,
and it's *meant* to offend...
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Yet another titty
When we hosted an exchange student a number of years ago, we took him to a popular Mexican resturant called Chi-Chi's. He informed us that 'chi-chis' is a Mexican slang word for 'titties.'
So, when his brother came over a couple years later, we asked him if he likes Chi-Chi's. Alas, the poor boy turned a nice shade of red.
Ray
Chi-chi's...
They've been out of business in the USA since 2004, although they still have a few locations in Europe and the Middle East. They were always a bit tacky, and had been going downhill for years before a Hepatitis outbreak in one store (not their fault, but traced back to a supplier) sent them into bankruptcy.
http://www.chichis.be/
http://www.chi-chis.lu/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sF4LPKuI9U (from 1984)
I never liked them, as their style was a bad and bland imitation of "Tex-Mex," laughable to anyone with an appreciation of Sonoran cuisine, but their claim to fame was that they were cheap, which isn't the best formula I think. I have to admit that their name was a hoot, as they say. The waitress uniforms were nothing like those of the Hooters Girls*, though, despite the superficial similarity of the names, which I think was completely unconscious, like the Chevy Nova car, which translated to "Doesn't go." It was founded by a football player, who died in an "accident" whilst blowing leaves off the roof of his house with a leaf blower at the age of 75. You have to admire ambition like that, if not prudence.
Cheers,
Puddin'
-----------------
* Hooters Girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlrw0kfZIZs
I never liked them either, for obvious reasons.
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Chi-Chi's restaurant gone?
For Four years? I didn't notice! But then, I don't go to many restaurants, I find very few that serve food that is as good as the food I cook at home!
Mr. Ram
It wasn't just the bad publicity.
We used to go to Chi-Chi's fairly often, but the last two times were not a good experience (bad service and mediocre food.) Once is a fluke, so we gave them a second chance. We didn't really notice when they disappeared. Part of that is probably due to the fact that we moved from the Detroit area up to the the middle of the state at about that time.
Ray
P.S.
Never been to Hooters.
Hey don't bash Max McGee or we'll cheese you to death
He founded the chain but had long sold it off, much like another Packer receiver, Bob Long, founded Pizza Hut.
As to falling off while removing leaves from the roof, falls are a far too often cause of death and injury for the elderly. I prefer to remember his years as an insightful and funny color commentator for WTMJ AM radio and the Packer radio network and his remarkable play in the first Superbowl where he caught many passes and multiple touchdown passes while hung-over, he had not expected to play in his last game before retiring.
His nighttime escapades with Paul Horning drove Vince Lombardi crazy.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa