Re: YAEDT (was Re: "write him" (was Re: More questions))

phild wrote:
> Stephen Mulraney wrote:
>
>>_pot_: I mean a "saucepan" (a word I can't bring myself to use - it's
>>like saying _spikespoon_ for _fork_). Sometimes understood. Thanks to
>>context, I've never had it taken as a reference to marijuana. But I'm
>>surprised it misunderstood at all.
>
> A "pan" or "saucepan" has low sides. A "pot" has tall sides. A "pot" is
> also the container for houseplants. Sometimes children refer to a "pail"
> as a "pot."
Among cooks I know, the distinction between pot and pan isn't made based
on the sides, but on the handles: one with two handles (usually each
handle connected at two points like a teacup's handle, but in the
horizontal plane) is a pot, one with a single handle (usually connected
at one point and sticking out straight) is a pan. It's a little loose:
pieces of cooking equipment that look like frying pans but have an
additional smaller pot-like handle opposite the pan-like handle are
usually still called pans. An item with two handles like a pot but very
low sides is usually called a griddle. Cooking-equipment catalogs I've
seen seem to back this up.