Pronunciation watch

[mangerton]

A few points to respond to here.....

Ah! Lees Macaroon bars. And what about snowballs? And tablet? I still make my own tablet, to a recipe based on my mother's, and it's much in demand for fund raising events. Barr's Irn Bru?

Like scotty, I'm not too sure about Soreen. I think it's the name that puts me off, as it reminds me of black eyes. The English might not get that.

[mangerton]

I do hope I'm not coming across as overly nationalistic on this thread,

I meant to say - certainly not!

[Curalach]

Ah! Lees Macaroon bars. And what about snowballs? And tablet? Barr's Irn Bru?

We might not be much good at games involving balls but we are world champions at heart attacks and strokes!

[mikerotheatrenestr0y]

Turn away for a moment and they're all eating! Before we get on to Bakewell Pudding vs. Bakewell Tart, can I get back to two points from earlier on?
1) "Come live with me and be my love..." was good enough for Kit Marlowe, and to those who disagree I say, "Go jump in the lake!" Putting a comma between separates the actions which are meant to be linked. It's not: "Come, be reasonable..." [NB C.Day Lewis has a modern version WITH the comma, which indicates doubt.]
2) Tolkien's "They sat silent" which EA glosses as misuse of adjective as adverb is no such thing. It is NOT a failed attempt to say "They sat silently" which would mean they managed not to f*rt or scrape their chairs as they sat DOWN. I can sit silent just as I can sit musing or stand horrified. It describes the state I am in while seated. Sit still at the back there! Will I have a response, or is EA running scared? Maybe he will run wild! Or talk dirty?

[Flosshilde]

A few points to respond to here.....

Ah! Lees Macaroon bars. And what about snowballs? And tablet? I still make my own tablet, to a recipe based on my mother's, and it's much in demand for fund raising events. Barr's Irn Bru?

Hmm, Irn Bru. I did try it, but I think you have to be weaned on it (& a large proportion of the population of Glasgow does seem to be) to fully appreciate it. However, I do like Tunnock's delicacies - http://www.tunnock.co.uk/ (curious that the language options are English & French - but then again, perhaps not so curious). I went to a restaurant a few years ago that had Irn Bru sorbet - still didn't like it.

[scottycelt]

A few points to respond to here.....

Ah! Lees Macaroon bars. And what about snowballs? And tablet? I still make my own tablet, to a recipe based on my mother's, and it's much in demand for fund raising events. Barr's Irn Bru?

Funnily enough, I was going to mention snowballs, mangerton ... the only thing I have remembered about a childhood holiday in Elie, Fife (I was five years of age) were the donkeys and the little corner shop that kept me going with snowballs ... no disrespect to Elie which is a delightful little seaside resort ... and, oh yes, tablet ... yummy ... how could I ever forget that solid lump of pure sweet ecstasy? ... sometimes called fudge? ... and Irn Bru ... oh, we could go on, and on ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

what do we think of Eccles cakes?

I think they're horrible, even though my great great grandfather owned the original Eccles Cake Shop (in Eccles). Another ancestor (who was famous at the time because of his exceptionally loud voice) was James Bagot, the Chelsea Bun Man in Manchester in the mid 19th century.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

2) Tolkien's "They sat silent" which EA glosses as misuse of adjective as adverb is no such thing. It is NOT a failed attempt to say "They sat silently" which would mean they managed not to f*rt or scrape their chairs as they sat DOWN. I can sit silent just as I can sit musing or stand horrified. It describes the state I am in while seated. Sit still at the back there! Will I have a response, or is EA running scared? Maybe he will run wild! Or talk dirty?

I'm not running scared, but I cannot agree. If Tolkien meant to say what you think he meant, he should have written "They sat in silence". Much better.

[amateur51]

However, I do like Tunnock's delicacies - http://www.tunnock.co.uk/ (curious that the language options are English & French - but then again, perhaps not so curious).

I loved Tunnock's wafers and teacakes as a schoolboy ( never had the snowballs - they sound ace!) and the Tunnock's website is amazing, especially the 3 TV adverts.

And it's glorious to read it all in French too - sounds soooo sophisticated (and why not?!)

But for me the real revelation was that .... Tunnock's makes some of their delights in dark chocolate **swoonerama**

Why was I not told?

[Flosshilde]

I'm not running scared, but I cannot agree. If Tolkien meant to say what you think he meant, he should have written "They sat in silence". Much better.

Presumably Tolkien knew what he wanted to say, & how he wanted to say it. "They sat silent" sounds much more emphatic than 'They sat in silence', especially with the repeated 's'. Tolkien was a literary stylist; the pedant is not.
To suggest that a writer should have written something else is to miss the point. I think Wilde's comment might be relevant - "The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

[Ferretfancy]

I always loved Eccles cakes as a kid because the slits in the top always reminded me of Henry VIII's slippers in the Holbein picture ( What an intellectual child ! )
I still enjoy them, and they are rather nice warmed in the microwave and eaten with vanilla ice cream. My mother used to make something called sly cake, which was a bit like a fruit slice with apple and currants, but I never saw a recipe and sadly it's now too late!

[mangerton]

Funnily enough, I was going to mention snowballs, mangerton ... the only thing I have remembered about a childhood holiday in Elie, Fife (I was five years of age)

I know Elie well. Little has changed. Strange.... the year I was five, when I lived in Leven, I went on holiday to Seamill.

[marthe]

Mangerton, thanks for the suggestion of Dundee cake and Delia Smith's website. Also whisky not whiskey noted. Handsome Husband prefers his to be single malt and neat. Actually, the whole business with scones/biscuits/cookies is rather complicated. Our biscuits are a sconelike savoury shortbread made with flour, baking powder, milk or buttermilk, shortening/butter/lard (your choice),and sometimes cheese/chives/bacon as additional flavouring. They are sometimes called baking powder biscuits and are often associated with Southern cookery. They can either be dropped by spoon, or rolled and cut with a biscuit cutter. Your biscuits are our cookies, a word that comes from the Dutch (those New Yorkers) koekje or little cake. The are hundreds of cookie recipes but they are all sweet rather than savoury. The classic American cookie is the Toll House or Chocolate Chip Cookie.

[mangerton]

Good luck with the cake, marthe, and thanks for the info on cookies. The word "biscuit" of course comes from the French and means "twice cooked", which our biscuits are.

[Flosshilde]

Good luck with the cake, marthe, and thanks for the info on cookies. The word "biscuit" of course comes from the French and means "twice cooked", which our biscuits are.

Don't know about the biscuits, but in ceramics 'biscuit' firing is the first firing, after which the piece is glazed & then fired again. So really a biscuit fired piece (or bisque) is once-fired (except that in ceramics once-fired means that you don't do a biscuit firing before glazing).