American things

Mayor McCheese said it first

I may have been led astray by Eddie Izzard here, but isn't "Berliner" not the German demonym for "people of Berlin" (iirc Izzard says it's a kind of doughnut?)

(I guess I've found my role on this thread)

yes Rob that’s why we laugh about the speech

Rob, normally the urban-legend-level story is that he said "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a jelly doughnut) instead of "Ich bin Berliner" (I am from Berlin). It has also been pointed out that everyone would have understood what he meant anyway (there is voluminous stuff on Snopes and Straight Dope on This.)

Anyway

I hate a specifically American culture around it

I pretty much hate all American sports culture - especially youth sports and "collegiate" sports, so you're not alone. Again

If what you want to say is "lol preppy jock frat bros amirite," just say that

But lacrosse is a tricky case, for the reasons Rob has outlined.

yes Rob that’s why we laugh about the speech

― sound of scampo talk to me (El Tomboto), Thursday, October 29, 2020 12:36 PM (five minutes ago)

ah-ha, yes, this makes much sense now

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jfk-doughnut/

Kennedy’s famous line was penned by someone who was raised within Berlin itself and was an accomplished and highly regarded translator in his own right. In proclaiming “Ich bin ein Berliner,” therefore, JFK was no more referring to himself as a pastry than someone calling himself a “New Yorker” would have been understood by Americans as styling himself to be a magazine or a town car. Just as “I’m American” and “I’m an American” are both correct, so are “Ich bin ein Berliner” and “Ich bin Berliner.” (In fact, some German speakers would regard the former to be the more correct.)

YMP yeah I don't hate big dumb populist sports culture (I even participate in some of it), I just have special disdain for the classist insularity of school lacrosse, it always struck me as the asshole's sport of choice

Ok

Yet more on the more pressing doughnut issue

https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kennedy-im-a-berliner-i-know-weve-done-this/256117/2

Moreover he did not give his speech on 31 December, the canonical date for consuming Berliner.

v disturbed to learn there's a purge specifically for cannibalism in Germany

Heh. Btw I harp on the Berliner thing not because I care about pastry all that much, but because: like everyone here I hate lots of "American things."

But I get very cross about lazy/stupid/knee-jerk hates that aren't even accurate.

The reason "I am a jelly doughnut" resonates is because people love a good down-punching narrative like "haha Americans r dumb." Because, you see, he said he was a doughnut lol.

When it returns out that he didn't, and that it was written by an actual Berlin-raised German, it was perfectly grammatical, and it was understood in context....

People still want to be like "nah, I prefer the lazy 'Americans r dumb' narrative because it conforms to my preconceptions and supports my preferred interpretation. Please do not attempt to cloud the issue with facts."

That irks me. There are lots of serious things wrong with America (I feel pretty sure am on record about this). Calling ourselves doughnuts is not among them.

And imo, isn't it possible that focusing on "hah we think we're doughnuts" distracts from the real and more serious things?

Off soapbox

because people love a good down-punching narrative like "haha Americans r dumb."

Always thought people were clowning more on JFK, who just happened to be an American.

And yet his speech is widely regarded as being both grammatical and idiomatic (having been written by a native German speaker from Berlin)

And everyone understood him in context (cf. "I am a New Yorker" could be construed as "I am a magazine" but no serious person construes it that way)

And GAH why am I arguing this still

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Always thought people were clowning more on JFK, who just happened to be an American.

This is literally the first time I've ever heard anyone say it was about dumb Americans.

had smores for the first time ever this summer when I went camping

pretty good

I have never thought about this before and I’m not German (although being Dutch I’m quite familiar with the German language, which is quite close to ours, also in this particular case), but my sense is that there is a subtle difference between saying “Ich bin Berliner” and “Ich bin ein Berliner”. “Ich bin Berliner” is more like an exclusionary statement: “I’m a Berlin guy first and foremost, that’s what and who I am, period”, whereas “Ich bin ein Berliner” implicitly leaves room for the fact that the speaker may have other affiliations too. Kennedy could have preceded it with “as well as being an American (as you all know), I’m also a Berliner”. So I think he/his speechwriter made the right choice.

...which is more or less what the Snopes piece says: "Just as “I’m American” and “I’m an American” are both correct, so are “Ich bin ein Berliner” and “Ich bin Berliner.” (In fact, some German speakers would regard the former to be the more correct for someone who was speaking figuratively, as Kennedy was.)"

Thanks, breastcrawl

I've noticed there appear to be two ways of pronouncing 'electoral' in the US depending on whether it's the electoral college that's being discussed. The latter seems to be pronounced the 'British' way: e-LEC-to-ral, but otherwise it seems to be pronounced e-lec-TO-ral?

credenza

possibly also chifferobe, chiffonier, armoire, bureau, tallboy, lowboy. but definitely credenza.

vac-CINE

Do you rhyme it with dachshund?

VAC-cine

I keep hearing the two different pronunciations on the news today.

VAC-cine

I'm begging of you please don't take my man

No, that's vac-CINE surely?

Now I'm getting confused, I need to listen to a British version of "Jolene".

sleeping compartments on semi-trucks (or lorries as I would call them) that look like this https://www.core77.com/posts/59146/What-Do-Luxury-Sleeper-Cabs-for-Long-Haul-Truck-Drivers-Look-Like

sem-eye trucks?

yes, sem-eye truck vs semmy-trailer seems like an American thing?

Stressing the second syllable seems like it could be an American thing - not only in words like 'vaccine' but in names like Bernard and Gerard. It's almost as if there's an attempt to make the words more interesting to say and hear because the British pronunciations of the same words sound so dull and flat, but I suspect it's more about a French influence on or origin of certain words which the British have been careful to expunge but which persists in American pronunciation.

like Bernard and Gerard.

was already thinking "this just sounds French tbh" at this point

I don't know if Americans do generally say Ber-NArd, but it definitely does sound fun when Killer Mike says "Senator Buh-NAHD Sanders"

Double down the bunless chicken burger.
Have seen the image over the last decade or whatever and thought it a sign of American excess.
Never seen it available this side of the Atlantic. So was surprised to see it on the menu in the local KFC recently. Which I don't remember having seen before not that I am in there much.
KFC itself wasn't around in a lot of places here for years. I remember one being in a prominent spot in Dublin when I was first there but disappearing after a couple of years and wondering why a well known brand elsewhere was no longer visibly around.
So now wondering if it was a short term offer and if irish customers aren't as pro cholesterol and type 2 diabetes etc as US ones. Or if it is a thing that has been around since they returned.
I think the one I was in is about the only branch in town and is right on the outskirts.

ga-RARge

Jamie Roberts, better known by his stage name Blawan, is an English DJ and record producer from South Yorkshire.

sampled from the Fugees though

the uk emphasis on the first syllable of words is why they are incapable of producing plausible rap music

I want you to park that big Mack truck
Right in this little garridge

“Plant manager Tom Hart organized a cash-buy-in, winner-take-all, betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many plant employees would test positive for COVID-19.” https://t.co/Nyra56dNJ5

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) November 19, 2020

i think they think yorkshire pudding is like chocolate pudding.. pic.twitter.com/w1pj9vIsGO

— my sexuality is dan levy's spooky eyebrows (@SaimaFerdows) November 19, 2020

Pepperidge Farm

fuckin milanos.... we should do a poll

lol of course it's been done
FAVORITE PEPPERIDGE FARM COOKIE

and the cookies themselves have their own dedicated thread:
Pepperidge Farm® Milano® Cookies

and there's a search and destroy, created pre-poll:
Pepperidge Farm: S/D

i was given milano 'slices' with fuckin...... pretzel crumbs in the dark chocolate and it broke my brain with delight

heckling "freebird" at bands

I've said this before, but it's not heckling. We really want to hear them play Freebird!

The joke is that there’s no such song as “Freebird”, right? Or has someone written a song based on the joke?

more than one way to skynard that bird

Has "Freebird" reasserted itself after it was seemingly replaced with "More Cowbell"?

I think there's a bit of difficulty disentangling the Pogues from all the horseshit Irish pride mook shit like Dropkick Murphys

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, April 17, 2021 9:36 AM (forty-nine minutes ago)