Britishisms in Stories About Americans, and Vice-Versa

[Panty Wrangler]

Problem? I don't see a problem. "Theatre" is listed as an accepted variation on Webster's.

LOL! Can't see the forest for the trees, huh?

I can just hear the pretentious voice saying something about the "theatre". It's certainly not a problem in the sense of acceptable spelling. Nevertheless, there is a stereotype of a particularly pretentious person who uses words like that. It comes across like an assertion of superiority whether it's meant as such or not.

All the same, I can certainly understand how it might be used in other ways. Just saying what it sounds like to my ears.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm sure the meaning is special to those who've been in it, but somehow it just comes across as pretentious to me.

For a long time, Chuck E Cheeze went by the name Chuck E Cheeze's Pizza Time Theatre. And that's about the least pretentious, least high-brow franchise imaginable. They probably thought transposing the letters just gave it a little added pizzaz.

 

[KeithD]

All the same, I can certainly understand how it might be used in other ways. Just saying what it sounds like to my ears.

Perhaps your ears need to be better educated. And perhaps you'll just drop this now.

I can sort of see how someone with a handle of "panty wrangler" might see perfectly fine word spellings pretentious, though.

 

[ElectricBlue]

For a long time, Chuck E Cheeze went by the name Chuck E Cheeze's Pizza Time Theatre. And that's about the least pretentious, least high-brow franchise imaginable. They probably thought transposing the letters just gave it a little added pizzaz.

Jalapeno peppers appealing to a different market?

I gotta say, this is the first I've heard of different word spellings being a sign of wankerdom. I just thought we had different dictionaries.

 

[PennameWombat]

For a long time, Chuck E Cheeze went by the name Chuck E Cheeze's Pizza Time Theatre. And that's about the least pretentious, least high-brow franchise imaginable. They probably thought transposing the letters just gave it a little added pizzaz.

Jalapeno peppers appealing to a different market?

I gotta say, this is the first I've heard of different word spellings being a sign of wankerdom. I just thought we had different dictionaries.

When I was young(ish) (so, 1970s, 1980s), Simon’s point was certainly accurate in my experience in the working-class environment in the US in which I grew up. I noticed much less of that as time went on, but I also moved and worked in different cultural mixes around the country.

Related but slightly different in impact was the hilarity in my late 1970s high school when ‘wanker’ entered our vocabulary. Yeah, we’d never heard the term before. A sign of my encroaching dementia is that I cannot recall what song lyric it was from that brought it to our attention.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I can't think of any Aussie songs from the early 70s with wanker in the lyrics (I wasn't allowed to listen to such naughty things then) but Janice Joplins "Try (just a little bit harder) included the term.

 

[PennameWombat]

I can't think of any Aussie songs from the early 70s with wanker in the lyrics (I wasn't allowed to listen to such naughty things then) but Janice Joplins "Try (just a little bit harder) included the term.

Wasn't Joplin. She was just a bit ahead of my age group, my older sister and cousins listened to her but we didn't. My misfiring brain keeps saying it was Rod Stewart or the Rolling Stones, but I can't find anything from the time period that fits, my google-fu is weak today. Tonight's the Night was huge, but it doesn't have the word.

But speaking of Oz, I did find Kevin Bloody Wilson's Missing You. . I am apparently not allowed to put the URL for the song's lyrics here... Every time I try it munges the URL. Interesting. It's on a site call Lyricsmode.

 

[XerXesXu]

When I was young(ish) (so, 1970s, 1980s), Simon’s point was certainly accurate in my experience in the working-class environment in the US in which I grew up. I noticed much less of that as time went on, but I also moved and worked in different cultural mixes around the country.

Related but slightly different in impact was the hilarity in my late 1970s high school when ‘wanker’ entered our vocabulary. Yeah, we’d never heard the term before. A sign of my encroaching dementia is that I cannot recall what song lyric it was from that brought it to our attention.

Stiff Little Fingers?

https://www****rics.com/serp.php?st=wanker&dec=1970

 

[Bramblethorn]

Wasn't Joplin. She was just a bit ahead of my age group, my older sister and cousins listened to her but we didn't. My misfiring brain keeps saying it was Rod Stewart or the Rolling Stones, but I can't find anything from the time period that fits, my google-fu is weak today. Tonight's the Night was huge, but it doesn't have the word.

But speaking of Oz, I did find Kevin Bloody Wilson's Missing You. . I am apparently not allowed to put the URL for the song's lyrics here... Every time I try it munges the URL. Interesting. It's on a site call Lyricsmode.

This is 1978, though I'm not sure about a Stones/Stewart resemblance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1xpUbAtcZA

From the far future, a gift to your 1970s inner child: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th4Czv1j3F8

 

[PennameWombat]

Stiff Little Fingers?

https://www****rics.com/serp.php?st=wanker&dec=1970

Thanks, but no. Never heard of ‘em. Definitely didn’t know anything about them back in high school.

Also, the “****” is literally in the URL you posted and it doesn’t resolve. That’s the same issue I had, something in Lit’s Forum URL post tool doesn’t like certain URLs. I’m guessing it has ‘lyrics’ in the URL, that was the same issue I had in my posting. I can see Bramblethorn’s YouTube links, so I don’t know what’s the rule on posting URLs but it clearly looks at the URL and makes a decision.

 

[Rustyoznail]

my google-fu is weak today...

Unfortunately, Google and early Aussie rock don't get on well. I remember listening to an AM station one night in the early 70's on my tranny (that's a transistor radio, not what you're thinking...). I'd picked up an alternative station that played an early punk rock song and I've been trying to find it since then.

The lyrics I heard were -

I took out my girlfriend
In a snub nosed nosed punt
Pulled out my penis
And shoved it up her...

And the station faded away. I've been looking for the answer for forty years.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Unfortunately, Google and early Aussie rock don't get on well. I remember listening to an AM station one night in the early 70's on my tranny (that's a transistor radio, not what you're thinking...). I'd picked up an alternative station that played an early punk rock song and I've been trying to find it since then.

The lyrics I heard were -

I took out my girlfriend
In a snub nosed nosed punt
Pulled out my penis
And shoved it up her...

And the station faded away. I've been looking for the answer for forty years.

Sweet little quim...

What, punks can't be romantic?

As a teen, I'd put an old metal steering wheel from a UK canal boat (god knows why that was in the house) on top of my radio, and it somehow acted as an antenna. On Sunday nights I could pick up Casey Casem's American Top Forty on 3XY, which wasn't bad - Melbourne to Armidale on atmospheric bounce. I remember Blue Osyter Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper was #1 for about six weeks. It would always play just before midnight.

I'd jerk off, go to sleep, and go to school in the morning. Fuck me, life was simple then, measured out in twenty minute increments - 45, if you'd recorded an album to cassette. Friday nights, a joint smoked out the window. My parents never knew. $30 a glad bag full of dope, would last a couple of months. I used to shop lift cassette tapes in packs of five to pay for the weed, once a week. I can't believe the shop was so dumb - the same kid coming in once a week, never buying anything?

 

[Panty Wrangler]

I can sort of see how someone with a handle of "panty wrangler" might see perfectly fine word spellings pretentious, though.

Oh that's rich! A professional editor judges a book by it's cover!

That's for that! You made my morning.

 

[MillieDynamite]

According to my father, who has worked in theater's all his life, in America the following are the preferred spellings for live theatre and motion picture theater.

Theatre involves live performance with actors and actresses who act out a real or imagined event before the audience.

Theater is a cinema, the film or digital file is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium.

Some theater's have used the theatre spelling in effort so seem more important. In the end, according him, either is acceptable, because it's just word! Words are important, but not so important as to sweat them in the use to fine a point.

Of course, his being a writer he's never used theater for in fiction for a live performance or theatre for a movie palace.

 

[KeithD]

Oh that's rich! A professional editor judges a book by it's cover!

That's for that! You made my morning.

Oh, I've judged you and much more than that, PW.

 

[soulhouse]

You wouldn't say "Move ahead me"... In each case the preposition "of" serves a valuable purpose.

I would usually defer to your superior grammatical knowledge, but isn't that because "ahead" isn't a preposition, unlike "inside" and "outside", but an adverb? "Ahead of" is a preposition: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ahead-of