Things I do better than Vladimir Putin ...

[blamebrampton]

Sing, and swim.

Seriously, that was a rubbish butterfly stroke. It's possible I would be a better leader of Russia, too, but since we have no basis for comparison, and I know only four words of Russian, he can have that one.

And while I am mocking people meanly, I found this gem in US Better Homes and Gardens, September 2008 edition:
What is a simmer?
"Simmer" is a just-for-fun term that has sprung up in the food world to mean cooking in a bold-flavored sauce. Think of it as braising with a twist. It's too new to be in dictionaries, but you'll see it used on restaurant menus ...

I had to actually hunt out one of my American dictionaries to check that this is as stupid as I thought it was. It listed simmer, gave its classic definitions (one of which covers the use the BH&G writer was aiming at) and noted the word comes from the mid 17th century. I am tempted to write to the editorial team to check that someone was laughed at for letting this through, but live in fear that no one was. Do not take your facts from mass market media, my friends! It is often written by gibbons!

Comments

[treacle-tartlet.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHAH! I laugh because the only other option is to weep for the future of humanity.

[lal111.livejournal.com]

Lol, you'd be much better in ruling Russia.
Just about anyone would.

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Simmer? Really? Rolls eyes


Have you seen that poor wounded Stuart Broad is joining Test Match Special as tea boy?

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

That's too funny. "a just-for-fun term". Hahahaha!

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Simmer. "Just for fun". Oh dear.

Though I remember a poor, benighted creature (also an American, I believe) assuring her unfortunate querent that "fruitwood" as a furniture-related term is merely a term for a colour of dye, not a reference to the real wood of real trees bearing human-edible fruit, like cherry or pear or apple (or indeed lychee, longan or mango). Then there was the recent edition of Vogue Patterns that solemnly assured the reader that Cluny lace is named after a museum in Paris...
and the article on Wallis Simpson that remarked that her affair with the King aroused the wrath of Queen Elizabeth I.

One weeps for fact-checkers and their lack of employment in the magazine industry.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

I always just thought that to simmer was to cook for a while on low heat to give the ingredients time to meld.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Gibbons have better things to do! Like hang around and pick poo off their bums. Simmer indeed.

[chantefable.livejournal.com]

Simmer. Wow. Reading that BH&G quote, I kept thinking 'Really? Really? Am I that stupid? Could this be right? Really?' But then I got to your indignation, and all was all right in the world.
Relief.

[jessikast]

Do you have access to the next month's mag, to see if they published an apology or correction, or at least a highly amusing letters page?

[phoenixacid.livejournal.com]

"just-for-fun", "bold-flavored sauce" - oh, wow. O_O Um, someone needs to buy them a dictionary.

[deensey.livejournal.com]

Are they at least erudite gibbons?

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

Re: simmer. What. I'm pretty sure that I've encountered it in a children's book written in the 80s. What.

Putin and inaccuracies

[theodoraleft.livejournal.com]

My daughter had a russian hamster called Putin. When I read out her text message "Putin is dead" in the staffroom at work, which included 2 russian students, it nearly caused an international incident.
I'm living your Italian experiences with you, each step of the way! love and kisses and lots of laughs xx