School food just isn't nice anymore.

Posted by Fin at 1/28/2005 05:59:00 pm

7 Comments ~ Post a Comment

 Blogger: :-o how did you do that? if they caught you... yknow they wouldv'e locked you in the fridge untill the end of the day!!!! and they would make you eat the leftovers!!!!!

 Anonymous: Actually, he means dinner.
It stems from a cultural difference, the current existence of which I am not certain.
In the United States, it is customary to eat the biggest meal in the evening (hence "dinner") whereas it at least was and perhaps still is (I'm not European, after all) customary in Europe to take your largest meal at noon (hence "dinner" - although I believe it is interchangeable with "lunch", right? Fintan?). Where what an American calls "lunch" is commonly known as "dinner", you will often find that what we call "dinner" will almost certainly be called "supper", a term we use interchangeably with "dinner".
Hope that doesn't cause more confusion than it removes.

 Anonymous: A clarification - "lunch" means a smaller midday meal where "dinner" refers to whichever is the largest meal of the day - in some cases server at noontime. "Supper" refers to a smaller evening meal.

 Fin: I really should have a supper, but I tend to have another dinner and then an array of snacks up until I go to bed. I'm working on that one, though...

At school we eat at about 1.00pm and just seem to call them "dinners". They can just as easily be called "lunches" or even (if your in a liberal mood) "partially digestible foodstuffs". At home I always call it lunch.

Some people I know call a meal around about 6.00pm (for me) supper, but I just call it dinner. The latter sounds more common to me, but I'm happy with it.

Sometimes people refer to "tea", but I really just get confused (drink?) and just ask when it is.

I don't really think it's usual to eat a larger meal at "lunch" time. I suppose it's up to you though, really.

It's quite interesting that you brought that up. I would never have considered it to be different abroad.

JUST TO CLARIFY
We do not stop everything at noon and eat crumpets and Earl Grey tea (I'm thinking about the Simpsons' view of us here). But I certainly see nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, I would welcome that into my lifestyle.

 Anonymous: Well, it's not that different.
It's just completely un-American to call lunch "dinner," although we'd let you get away with calling dinner "supper".
Earl Grey... People think I'm weird for drinking the stuff. I don't drink it too often, of course, but when I do they all give me funny looks.
Like I'm not patriotic or something. Maybe I ought eat apple pie instead.

 Fin: Oh I love it!

 Anonymous: Maybe your Earl Grey is in better shape than what I've had.
After all, it all seems to come through London. As if, I suppose, the manufacturers feel that it's not tea if it's not from London. Maybe the two years it takes (that's an exaggeration, I hope) to ship the tea leaves (probably picked by some Malaysian worker who hardly subsists) to London and then have it all sewn together in a pretty little paper bag in order to legally allow the manufacturer to print "A Product of Londone" (the "e", of course, being for effect. All real Americans know that real British people put an unnecessary "e" after every word - "ye olde shoe shoppe" and other sad gimmicks) on the little paper thingy that you move up and down if you really want to steep that there tea. By the time it gets to the US, perhaps, you wouldn't know the difference between the Early Grey you receive and, say, Purina® brand Dog Chow™ chopped up and placed in a little paper baggie. That's my crackpot theory.
I still think we can pin it on the Turks.
Okay, seriously - and not to imply I found any of what I just said amusing - I am fine with it, but some people think it is really bitter. For which I applaud them, of course - they're free thinkers, and we could always use one or two of them to ridicule, erm, cherish.