Exactly, Alan. The name should imply to the dancers who would like to come that "It's British. It's American."
An American would find it rather fancy to have "tea and finger sandwiches at 4:00 in the afternoon. I suppose many of us would wish we could have a nap at that hour instead, but cucumber sandwiches and ladyfingers would be fun. Too bad for us that now we learn from Read that "high" refers to the height of the table instead of the class of the participants. Perhaps we could serve it on bar tables, which are higher even than dinner tables, though possibly lower, even, in class... On another front - I find I must yield on the spelling of "Sarsaparilla", the wikipedia article to the contrary notwithstanding. So - my apologies to my fellow grammar police - but modern makers of the stuff seem to prefer "Sarsaparilla" to "Sasparilla", and we found the perfect beverage for the weekend - it's Snake River Sarsaparilla. The first caller of our St Louis contra group, Peter Lippincott, wrote a lovely tune and dance called "Snake River Reel." The dance isn't danced much any more because there's no partner swing in it - which Roger Diggle fixed with his "Snake Oil Reel", but it would be perfect to honor Peter by importing some Jackson Hole Soda Company Snake River Sarsaparilla for the event. Hmmm... wonder if I still have my Dance Hall Girl costume from the Western skit we did once for a dance at my high school... M E On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 4:32 AM, Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing < [email protected]> wrote: > Read wrote: > > Do you really want it to be "high tea"? "High tea" is basically >> supper; the 'high' either means 'late' (as in "it's high time we had >> some supper") or refers to eating it at the high table, rather than >> having afternoon tea at low tables. It's a rather unpleasant >> Americanism to think that "high" in this context means high-class; >> i.e., fancy. I realize "Afternoon Tea & Sarsaparilla" doesn't have >> much of a ring to it, but maybe "Cream Tea & Sarsaparilla"? >> > > As I understand it, the idea is to sound British and American. "High Tea" > gets > the idea of British across, regardless of solecisms. > > I suppose they could do "Crumpets and Red-Eye Gravy" but it doesn't convey > 'class' as well. > > --Alan > > -- > ==============================**==============================** > =================== > Alan Winston --- [email protected] > Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: > 650/926-3056 > Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA > 94025 > ==============================**==============================** > =================== > > > ______________________________**_________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/**mailman/listinfo/callers<http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers> > -- As you set out for Ithaka, pray that your journey be long, full of adventure, full of discovery... May there be many summer mornings when, with what pleasure, with what joy, you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time. ~Constantine Cavafy, "Ithaka" 1911
