Colloquialisms

MerlF said:
I've lived in Canada for almost 50 years come June 12th this year....
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You sure it won't be 12 June?

MerlF said:
My old daddy was a milk rounds-man .... O ne of his deliveries was to a well endowed widow where he proceeded to tell everyone that every morning around 5:30am he would knock up Mrs Jones,to give her a "Good start" to the day.....
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Was his name Ernie?

 
MaxPete said:
In Canada, we express dates logically as in: Day / Month / Year

....and toast is always served warm or hot (NEVER cold) and it comes in white, brown or rye.
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When expressed numerically, the official date format in Canada is YYYY/MM/DD following an ISO standard. It seems to be a well guarded secret however, which results in considerable confusion.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
When expressed numerically, the official date format in Canada is YYYY/MM/DD following an ISO standard. It seems to be a well guarded secret however, which results in considerable confusion.
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That format is so that computers can sort a date into the correct order - or at least perform a comparison between two dates to find out which comes first. I use it (or usually YYYYMMDD) if I ma date coding file names - particualrly photographs - so that I can sort them into the correct order. Unfortunately the inbuild fields DateTaken/Date Modified/DateCreated/DateLast Saved for photographs are not used correctly by some programs. Eg An image editor may alter the Date Taken field, rather than the date modified. It renders a perfectly good system compeltely useless !
 
I'd say about 52 stone 1 pound. I don't know that it's a colloquialism. I'd say just a different unit of measure.
 
ring off.. give a bell.. telly... done a runner... made leg bail (that from this side of the pond)... scarpered...
 
jfheath said:
That format is so that computers can sort a date into the correct order - or at least perform a comparison between two dates to find out which comes first.
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Maybe, but I don't think that that was the impetus. I believe that the ISO date format was adopted in an attempt to reduce the date confusion that grew even worse after Canada adopted the metric system. Some people continued using what they always had done. Others started using the ISO standard that many countries who were already using the metric system used in the belief that it was part of adopting the metric system. Consequently there was a myriad of different combinations being used to numerically express dates. It was a confusing mess and often the actual date of a document was difficult to discern. There was an already existing ISO standard so it made sense to adopt it. I don't know if it was adopted as a policy as opposed to a law or regulation, so as I wrote it seems to have remained a secret because many date formats are still in use. The only place where I have worked where the use of the ISO format of YYYY/MM/DD was mandated was the aviation industry in Canada. Whether it is industry wide or only where I worked I don't know, I never bothered to check because it didn't matter. The use of that format was written in to our maintenance control manual. Once that happens it defacto becomes a legal requirement on any controlled document, so I had no choice at that point. It was actually good because there was no date confusion.
 
Ahem… (I owned a Jaguar XJ6 for years, 3 of them when stationed at Heidelberg):

hood/bonnet
trunk/boot
windshield/windscreen
tire/tyre
gas/petrol
[keep it going]

USA/UK - two peoples, separated by a common language
 
Willsmotorcycle said:
Was that so you could drive one while the other two were in the shop?
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I bought it in Tacoma, WA, a ‘72 USA XJ6 model, and took it to Germany when the US Army sent me to Heidelberg for a three year tour of duty. It was a great machine for running effortlessly 120mph for long stretches on the autobahn. British Racing Green, beige leather seats, burled walnut dash and trim… a grand touring salon, what an automobile! Still running great at 140K after 12 years when I sold it. It was getting hard to find leaded gas for those two 13gal tanks to feed that beautiful 4.2l straight 6 powerplant; that, and we had need of one of the new family vans. Damn, I still miss that car though… A few years ago I bought myself a wonderfully detailed XJ6 diecast model, same colo(u)rs, working doors, bonnet, boot, etc. See it every day, reminding me of those halcyon days. < sigh… >

John
 
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