It's interesting to look at all the food misnomers out there and thinking about how it probably got started. I'd bet someone started calling a macaroni hotdish chop suey because they didn't like "Chinese food" but wanted to participate in the fad and they'd eat that. Goulash is a wonderful stew but also implies a mushy slop so I can see how that was assigned to it too. Fer cryin out loud, when I went to school they called sloppy joes "BBQ Beef on a Bun"! Pitmasters would choke on that one! I've given up and figure if ya can't beat, em join em. I now call fresh fried Walleye "Lutefisk". I'm going to get people used to it and wait for my Texas cousin to come up for a Lutefisk dinner in the church basement! hehehe

The other night we went to the local pizza place and the couple we were with ordered garlic rolls. My husband and I have never once in 4 yrs had a good garlic roll from this place, they microwave the rolls before bringing them out which as you know, makes them very tough and chewy. Not good. And more times than not, they've been microwaved beforehand and then brought to our table cold. So we don't order them anymore. But since this particular couple did order them, we each had one and it was the same thing, tough, chewy yucky. So I said to the waitress, who had a really funny personality, witty, fun, joking with us..... I said, "I'd love to come teach them how to make a good garlic roll" so she said, "Can you be here at 9:30 tomorrow morning?" I said, "Sure!"...... I knew she was joking - she knew I was joking. Well, minutes later the manager was at our table all in a huff because I didnt' like his garlic rolls. So I was honest and told him it was true, I really didn't. He said his restaurant is "known" for their garlic rolls and I was the only one who didnt like them. Ummmmm everyone I've spoken to that's eaten there HATES their garlic rolls. So I dont know what he's talking about. Anyway he admitted that they do nuke the rolls before bringing them out to the tables. He also admitted that he hates nuked bread too but that is how they do it. I was embarrassed because I never intended to insult the manager and I was a little PO'd w/our waitress for sending him over. If I wanted to complain to the manager I would have asked that he be sent over. It was obvious that he has no plans to change how they re-heat their rolls.

Had a minor hissy fit over a missing tug (connecting strap) on a breast collar. Had someone get me one off another one muttering under my breath how people should be more observant of keeping track of the tack. Then when I went to put on the bridle there was the tug, had somehow got caught up on it. So much for being observant. Better practice what I preach. We got a new solar powered light for our flag. DH said we had to send it back because it wasn't working. I laid it down upside down on a table to take a look and it lit up since the light was blocked. He'd tested it merely holding it upside down to block the light not thinking how light can come still get in from below. He's actually the mechanically gifted one. At least he is usually. I learned well from him. After one especially long, fatiguing day of frustration I had finished my last errand. I lost a half hour in a dark parking lot one night searching for my keys to the truck by phone flashlight after loading groceries. I emptied every bag, looked between and under the seats, checked the area around me, even looked under the truck. In frustration I decided to sit for a bit. There were my keys. I'd put them in the ignition so I wouldn't misplace them.

floral, I think you misunderstood or misread what I said. My frequent, often annual, visits to the UK and how much time I've spent over the years with colleagues and friends alike, have impressed upon me the substantial differences that exist between the US and UK concerning so many things - cultural habits and expectations, what I'll call ethnic and engrained traditions, social and interpersonal conduct, and the rest, much more so than similarities. Because of my awareness, I never assume anything. I never assume I understand what an expression may or may not seem to mean, what a comment may or may not expressly imply, what a reaction to something is or isn't. I ask, I don't assume. It's usually the right approach because as the old saying goes, things aren't always as they appear to be. So you and others can have a good time taunting me, too bad it's you all who've missed the point. Sarah Lyall, a woman of NY roots, was the NY Times London Correspondent for nearly 20 years. She met and married an Englishman and started her family there. In her book Anglo Files, she chronicles perplexing incident after incident, comment after comment, that she struggled to understand and many never did. Even with a husband to serve as a cultural guide and ambassador, she concluded that the differences in what I'll briefly call personal behaviors, social conduct and expectations and national attitudes were too numerous to fully grasp and know how to deal with when encountered. After discussing the book in a video visit with one of our dear English friends (the close relationship dating from back decades from when we were both living on the Continent and with whom we've always and often discussed interesting and different cultural practices as between our two worlds), I sent them a copy of the book as a gift. It was hard to find there but I did find it on the UK version of Ebay. They loved it and found it entertaining and enlightening to see how things that for them are everyday or culturally expected, some of which they too find a bit bizarre, could be so puzzling to an outsider.