Re: OT: Two countries separated by a common language

On Sun, May 18, 2003 at 12:39:21AM +1000, Tristan McLeay wrote:
> [1]: chillybins. We call them eskis. If an episode of Law and Order SVU
> is anything to go by, Americans call them coolers,
Yup, we call them coolers, although some folks call them "ice chests"
- a term which once upon a time referred to a refrigerator instead.

> despite the fact that they don't cool, but merely keep cool.
If you put ice in them, they do cool to a certain extent.  You
put room-temperature cans of soda in there with the ice, and in
a little while they're cooler.  Arguably cold enough to drink,
though not cold enough for my taste.   I like my sodas
Coke-machine-cold - anything above 4 or 5C is unacceptable. :)

But our name for them can be a source of misunderstanding.  Putting
lunchmeat in there which hasn't already been in the fridge or freezer for
a while, and expecting it to remain edible all day - well, that's not
likely to work.

> And aren't America and Britain countries seperated from themeselves by a
> common language? :)
To a certain degree, of course that's true.  But while we have
wide differences in pronunciation from sea to shining sea, the
actual choice and spelling of words seems to be much more consistent
within our borders than it is between us and y'all Aussies, or
either of us and them folks up on that little island who claim
proprietorship over our shared language just 'cause they got to name
it. ;-)

-Mark