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From: "credoquaabsurdum" <credoquaabsurdum@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: Straight or neat?
Date: 17 May 2005 05:50:01 -0700
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Chris Croughton wrote:
> Hmm, I don't drink single malt Scotch in pubs generally, most of them
> only have inferior quality product <g>. I would tend to use
'straight'
> for Scotch (and possibly for other alcohol) but 'neat' when using
> something like lemon juice in cooking, but I'm not consistent ("A
> foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" -- Ralph Waldo
> Emerson).
I completely agree about inferior product in pubs, but my acquaintance
is a devotee of Cutty Sark on the rocks and might consider a Jack
Daniels with Coca-Cola the height of sophisticiation.
> Certainly your acquaintance is wrong that "all" Britons use
'straight',
> there are certainly some (and not just a few) who use 'neat'. As far
as
> I know any bartender ("barman" is also correct for a male bartender,
as
> is "bar steward"[1] in some establishments; "bar lady" is preferred
to
> "bar girl" or "barwoman" for female ones; "proprietor" (male or
female"
> if the person serving is also the owner) in the UK will accept either
> 'straight' or 'neat' to mean "don't put anything else in it".
"Bar lady" is slightly more acceptable to my ears than "bar-maid," but
then again, I'm one of those guys who hate weather girls and prefers to
hear his news straight up from a far less presentable but far more
professionally competent meteorologist.
>
> [1] Confusable with 'bastard', especially when he calls 'time' <g>.
Now you see, that's a new one. The whole "time" thing doesn't exist in
the same way in the States. When is it, eleven o'clock in some parts of
Britain? That's just cruel.
> Chris C
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