Divided by a common language

[lovecraft68]

We literally had the Jeff Foxworthy joke going on in our house for a good decade when we were kids. Our working television sat on top of the non-working floor model.

It only finally left the house when Dad went to college for electronics, dug into it, fixed it, and sold it to someone.

The television then sat on an end table for a few months LOL

All I need to complete the visual is the tinfoil on the end of the antenna

 

[RejectReality]

All I need to complete the visual is the tinfoil on the end of the antenna

That did happen. LOL Rabbit ears with aluminum foil extensions until we got cable when I was like 16 and it had a *gasp* remote control

Still had to get up to turn the television off/on or mess with the volume though.

 

[jaF0]

Assume Fox viewing positions!!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CSXhXQjUkAA6mj5.jpg

 

[Bramblethorn]

I like "removal men' sounds like professional killers....

Reminds me of a Neil Gaiman short story with a character who advertises "extermination of unwanted mammals of any size"...

 

[Rollinbones]

Remove- to take something away.

Removal- the act of taking somthing away.

Removalist- the person who does the removal.

Move- To shift something to another location.

Moving- the act of shifting something.

Mover- the subject/object responsible for shifting something.



I think maybe we should make a new word called, 'Movalists" because so called 'removalists' may take something away but they return it to a new location.

What they are doing is moving something not removing it. So, perhaps they are movalists.

English is the language of sailors who were trying to negotiate with whores.

 

[Jada59]

Removal men sound like people who pick up trash. or rubbish to you.

 

[XerXesXu]

.......... removed the window and frame, and threw the piano out. Job done!

Me too. Third floor into garden, add smashed carcass to bonfire. Getting large items up to third floor was more difficult - pulley on roof and teams managing ropes.

 

[KeithD]

Saw a baby grand that had been shipped half way around the world dropped three stories upon delivery. Saw the owner again twenty years later and she was still crying.

Not my first observation, though. We were following a pickup carrying a piano on a steep road outside Washington, D.C., when I was young and, we had to slow down and stop as we watched the piano slide back and land in the road in front of us.

 

[BillyAndBetty]

..........

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Thinking about it I've called them removal men, moving guys, removal/moving chaps, even shipping guys, but never movers. (London UK).

The plural of a man with a van is Men With Ven, in common dialogue.

Out of interest do Americans call a van such as a Ford Transit or Merc Sprinter a truck, or is it that roads are large enough people use trucks to move even if belongings would fit in a van?

People in America tend to call certain vans(and all SUVs) trucks. Here's the kicker; The Ford Transit and Mercedes/Dodge/International Sprinter are Transit vans. I'm not sure how many countries use them, but to my knowledge they are typically european vehicles. Where say the UK has transit vans, America typically has Stepvans, two different vehicles with the same purpose. You could say they are actually the same vehicle but designed to fit where they operate and the different names are like most things from here to there, like apartment versus flat, or Estate versus Station Wagon.

Yes Ford calls theirs Transit, which is the vehicles type, General Motors used to sell a Step Van(Grumann Body) they called StepVan, and a fullsize van called ChevyVan. Personally I prefer step vans to transit vans, aestetically, and they look far more stable, both vehicles are pretty much the same height, transit vans being from europe are more narrow and even the 1tons look tippy. Plus it may just be what we get here in the usa, but step vans seem to come in more sizes. All the transit vans I see are either half ton or one ton. Ford only has a half ton to replace their Econoline, and a smaller one that may or may not still be on the Ford Focus platform, to be a cheap utility van and replace their minivan in a passenger version. Step vans can be had in a half ton, one ton, quarter ton, and two and a half ton variant, since they typically share chassis with whatever full size pickup truck or commercial truck exist, like your typical F350 or GMC Top Kick.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Anything For A Buck (aka Larry and the Darryls).

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9VrtK7rCtVk/XPqPS1qUQdI/AAAAAAAA_Zc/zim8ChUK8QQkQMVdtt9BcvJAgjR2O3WjgCLcBGAs/s1600/ldd-meme.png



Those are vans, not trucks (Lorries).

Real Americans rent trucks by the day and move their own stuff:

http://www.uhaul.com/Reservations/Images/small-rental-truck.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4078/4795227929_0bb8fe42db_z.jpg

Box on the back or not, a GMC Savana is still a van. SaVANa. The other is a GMC TopKick... truck.

 

[KeithD]

People in America tend to call certain vans(and all SUVs) trucks.

I've never heard an American call either a van or an SUV a truck.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

We literally had the Jeff Foxworthy joke going on in our house for a good decade when we were kids. Our working television sat on top of the non-working floor model.

It only finally left the house when Dad went to college for electronics, dug into it, fixed it, and sold it to someone.

The television then sat on an end table for a few months LOL

The DL Hugley joke is the newer tv sits on the old tv, the new one got the picture, the old one had the sound.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I've never heard an American call either a van or an SUV a truck.

Really? People call box vans and step vans trucks. My mom calls her Envoy a truck, many people called my Bronco a truck, one whom had an Explorer called it a truck. As a gearhead it annoys the shit outta me. People even call coupe utility vehicles trucks... yeah they look more like trucks than suvs but still. I used to be an asshole when I ownee my 91 S10 Blazer and my 88 Bronco, the conversation would go;
"...hey you got a truck, right?"
"Nope."
"I thought you did."
"Nope, I drive a Blazer/Bronco."

It's even more annoying when the SUV isn't even truck based, which now they call CUVs(crossover utility vehicle) as a technical term- which 90 percent of them are. Originally the technical term for SUVs that you'd see in like Car & Driver would be "tall wagon". The Wrangler, 4Runner, Liberty, are a few SUVs that come to mind that are body on frame and don't share a chassis with a truck, unless the 4Runner and Tacoma share a frame. The last few Escalades are based off the Silverado, but have IRS. The 2012(?) to 2020 Explorer shared platform with the Tarus and Lincoln Continental and MX or K something.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've never heard an American call either a van or an SUV a truck.

Depends what you mean by "van." I've called moving vans "vans" and "trucks." They're interchangeable terms to me when applied to that kind of vehicle. I've heard other people do the same.

If you're talking about a car van, like a minivan or VW Bus, I wouldn't call that a truck. That's a van. I've heard other people say that.

I've never called an SUV a truck or thought of it as a truck even though I know some are based on truck chassis. That's an SUV.

The use of the word "lorry" really is one of those truly dividing words, because I have never, ever heard that term used by anyone in the US.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Even the term "SUV" is odd. Most of those vehicles are definitely not "Sports." The Porsche Cayenne - yes. Cadillac Escalade - not so much.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The use of the word "lorry" really is one of those truly dividing words, because I have never, ever heard that term used by anyone in the US.

Uniquely European/British, I reckon. It not used in Oz. We have trucks, semis, b-doubles; and out in the bush, road-trains. But not lorries.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The use of the word "lorry" really is one of those truly dividing words, because I have never, ever heard that term used by anyone in the US.

Agreed. While the name Lori is also a true divider, being unknown in the UK yet 20 years ago it seemed to be every American woman was called Jennifer or Lori. A couple Loris came over to work in London with me got very hacked off that everyone spelt their name Laurie until told otherwise.

 

[oggbashan]

Agreed. While the name Lori is also a true divider, being unknown in the UK yet 20 years ago it seemed to be every American woman was called Jennifer or Lori. A couple Loris came over to work in London with me got very hacked off that everyone spelt their name Laurie until told otherwise.

Years ago, I was in contact about photography with an American who wanted a camera I had for his daughter.

She was called 'Randy' - a name that could never be used in the UK.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Agreed. While the name Lori is also a true divider, being unknown in the UK yet 20 years ago it seemed to be every American woman was called Jennifer or Lori. A couple Loris came over to work in London with me got very hacked off that everyone spelt their name Laurie until told otherwise.

Ahhemmmm!!! True, though; When Will and I first got married all the party/wedding/engagement/function invitations we received were for 'Will and Laurie', and my nameplate at UCH was spelled 'Laurie', even after I gave admin the correct spelling, the one that's actually on my MD sheepskin on my office wall, so yeah, you got a point there. My actual complete name is Cajun French, Jéanne-Alorette-Loriànne, hence 'Lori' but English ears can't seem to hear the subtle difference between the diminutive 'Lori' and the proper name 'Laurie', and it took a while for colleagues to get it right. My family pronounces my name quite differently to the accepted pronunciation; they have that sharp, glottal French 'o' sound as in 'low', not the extended flat 'o' sound as in Laurie.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Ahhemmmm!!! True ... English ears can't seem to hear the subtle difference between the diminutive 'Lori' and the proper name 'Laurie', and it took a while for colleagues to get it right. My family pronounces my name quite differently to the accepted pronunciation; they have that sharp, glottal French 'o' sound as in 'low', not the extended flat 'o' sound as in Laurie.

You were what made me think of it, though I also have a friend Lori who swore she spent half her days in England telling people how to spell her name.

Written discussions about pronunciation never go well, but I'll just mention that the English pronunciation of Laurie doesn't have an extended o sound - Hugh Laurie is said just like lorry. At least in the last 50 years - old school RP might use a slight drawl, but then, even the Queen doesn't speak the Queen's English any more.

 

[SimonDoom]

You were what made me think of it, though I also have a friend Lori who swore she spent half her days in England telling people how to spell her name.

Written discussions about pronunciation never go well, but I'll just mention that the English pronunciation of Laurie doesn't have an extended o sound - Hugh Laurie is said just like lorry. At least in the last 50 years - old school RP might use a slight drawl, but then, even the Queen doesn't speak the Queen's English any more.

This is another one of those interesting wrinkles in pronunciation: subtle differences, or their abolition. Where I come from, the Western US, we tend to avoid subtle differences and blur everything.

So, for example, I pronounce the following the same:

pen/pin

Lori/Laurie/lorry

been/bin

git/get

cot/caught

Mary/marry/merry

If I said, "He married Mary, and it made him merry" I'd pronounce all those words exactly the same.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

. Where I come from, the Western US, we tend to avoid subtle differences and blur everything.

So, for example, I pronounce the following the same:

pen/pin

Lori/Laurie/lorry

been/bin

git/get

cot/caught

Mary/marry/merry

If I said, "He married Mary, and it made him merry" I'd pronounce all those words exactly the same.

Whereas apart from Lori/lorry/Laurie, I'd make all those clearly different, except saying bin for been if I'm at home.

I can decode people who merge all the above, but I do worry about the sanity of anyone called Don who names his daughter Dawn when they say the two names the same.

 

[SimonDoom]

Whereas apart from Lori/lorry/Laurie, I'd make all those clearly different, except saying bin for been if I'm at home.

I can decode people who merge all the above, but I do worry about the sanity of anyone called Don who names his daughter Dawn when they say the two names the same.

Whereas, I wouldn't give it any thought, because it would not occur to me to pronounce "Dawn" and "Don" differently.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

You were what made me think of it, though I also have a friend Lori who swore she spent half her days in England telling people how to spell her name.

Written discussions about pronunciation never go well, but I'll just mention that the English pronunciation of Laurie doesn't have an extended o sound - Hugh Laurie is said just like lorry. At least in the last 50 years - old school RP might use a slight drawl, but then, even the Queen doesn't speak the Queen's English any more.

And my name's not pronounced Lorry either; most people mangle it and call me 'Lawrie', which just hurts my ears...