smattering

For the last couple of summers, I’ve had a great urge to re-read a lot of books which I’ve had sitting around for quite awhile (thus disproving what some people in the comments sections of these two brief articles claim about people being unlikely to do such a thing as re-read a book).  One of these is Bill Bryson’s Made in America, which I had not quite gotten through completely when I first read it.  It wasn’t the right time; now is, for whatever reason.

Favorite portions and factoids abound, mostly those having to do with names (go look up a list of the real names of 1930’s and 40’s Hollywood actors: it’s pretty awesome, especially in the case of Walter Matthau).  However, in honor of the book’s trope of pointing out differences in English usage in Britain and America, here’s an instance from today’s BBC that, presumably, won’t show up on CNN anytime soon.