Tim

@Andrzej Or, as per the Rolling Stones: But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash It's a gas, gas, gas

@Andrzej A Polish friend at uni used to bring in his Zubrowka vodka, the one with a blade of grass in, and speak very seriously about how some vodka is better than others. I wasn't convinced. It does a job when you add other stuff to it! Interestingly, in reminding myself what that vodka was called, I see that the Polish version is banned in the US because the grass used to flavour it contains a substance called "coumarin", which can be toxic in extremely large doses. Wait until they find out what alcohol does...

@Barry Ancona For an international solver EUNICE, UPI and WELCHS were particularly tricky (although don't know if that would be the case for Tim from Chicago!). UPI may be international in theory, but does not have nearly the name recognition that its rivals (AP, Reuters etc.) have. And WELCHS could easily have been WELSHS for all I knew. Which meant coming up with a name for E_NI(S/C/?)E. Guessable eventually, but tough - who knows what the Kennedy family might call their kids! Still, now I know...

@SP As a Brit, living just over La Manche from France, we have always had a friendly/warring rivalry with our neighbours. They call us "les rosbifs". We call them "the frogs". I've never met any English or French person who is particularly offended by either term. French people, please do admonish me if I'm wrong. It's also highly unlikely that the term comes from their delicious dish of frogs legs as it's been around since the middle ages and may have been coined as a general term for the French by Parisians themselves (see <a href="https://poitoucharentesinphotos.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/why-do-the-english-refer-to-the-french-as-frogs" target="_blank">https://poitoucharentesinphotos.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/why-do-the-english-refer-to-the-french-as-frogs</a>/)

@Andrzej Weirdly, Lipton is a very old British business, whose tea is rarely ever seen in the UK. We only ever see it when we're on holiday (mainly in cheap hotels). (Though having just Googled it, I see it's now owned by Pepsi, so suddenly that all makes sense...)

@Bill in Yokohama I pretty much doubled my time because I was happy with AaH and MWAa for too long. Whichever way you spell it one of them looks wrong.

@Tim Woah woah woah, I'm Tim from London. We're going to have to settle this somehow. A duel?

@Andrzej I think we need to talk more about what that banana's doing in the naan. I guess if it's not a garlic naan that might be acceptable. But surely if there's leftover naan, there's also leftover curry, which makes the best breakfast! And if there's no leftover curry, well that means you've got your ratios all wrong. So much to unpack.

@Belinda I think John was agreeing with you. It's definitely a Welsh term (or at least stereotypically so). But you know, Australians, Welsh, English, all drive on the left and swear a lot so pretty much the same thing.

@Ben I'd have to agree with other commenters that VIGODA and IMPEI crossing is not Monday-level. Monday-level doesn't mean "under 4 minutes for a seasoned puzzler", it should mean, "all answers gettable for a new puzzler".

@Eric Hougland Ah, but if you get to the place where you know you don't know how to spell it, then as soon as you know how to spell it, you think, "ah, but it's spelled the way I don't spell it", and so you no longer know how to spell it. Just like the traumatic event of my childhood when I spelled "separately" "seperately" in a spelling test because the teacher had taught us that it's not spelled how you think it's spelled. Never been so angry.

@Andrzej I recommend that you make room in your heart for savoury porridges. My wife is Cantonese and her mother makes delicious congee with pork and salted egg. Plus, if you eat congee at a congee restaurant, you get to order it with fried doughnut sticks, and who doesn't want doughnuts for breakfast? See also, cheesy grits in the Deep South. Delicious. I need to find out where to buy grits in the UK - that stuff is good.

@Andrzej Can't speak for North Americans, but in the UK we very rarely (almost never) say AMPere. If you were to ask anyone what the unit of current is, they would almost always say AMP (or AMPs). Ampere probably sounds too French for us 😉

As children, we used GALUMPH as as verb to describe the most efficient way of moving down a Welsh hillside covered in heather. Clumsy, but speedy.

@Kanye Your sarcasm may not be clear enough for all to see. Maybe add a wink emoji next time 😜

@Steve L I'm a Brit in my early 40s and I knew STAX! I guess you know what you know.

@Sam UMPS = umpires who squat during baseball matches I think! A few key bits of US sports knowledge required for this one (END RUN and SAC FLY). I always allow myself to look them up, as I figure "well I'd know the answer if it was about (English) football or cricket".

@Andrzej Sure, on a warm day you *can* spread Brie. But being able to spread something does not make it a spread! Though as per your other replies, it seems that the supermarket Brie brand "Président" does in fact sell a "Créme de Brie" spread. 'The rich and creamy essence of brie without the rind', they say. Just don't tell the French.

@Andrzej In the US and the UK, "BIZARRO-world" has leaked out into more common usage (e.g. "What, he got elected again? We must be living in bizarro-world."). I didn't know the term's origin story, so this was interesting for me at least!

@Andrzej My theory is that vowels don't matter much in English. You can leave vowels out of longer words and not have too much problem parsing a sentence. "The prcl is in the WRHS", for instance. Pronunciation of vowels in English is so regionally variable (we have 4+ distinct accents in London alone), that I think our brains are adapted to ignoring them somewhat. Probably why we don't really have any consistency as to how we use vowels to spell words. An expert may have a more informed view, but that's my theory until proven otherwise!

@Andrzej I've seen a DINNER THEATRE in a US TV series (the excellent Hacks), so it must be a real thing! It's a theatre that looks like a jazz club, where patrons get to watch a play whilst being served dinner at their table. I can't quite imagine whether that would be a pleasant experience or not - maybe it depends on the play...

@Andrzej POPO you can only really get from the crosses and a guess. My wife is a fluent Cantonese speaker and it would never occur to her to spell the word for Grandmother on your mother's side like that! From how she pronounced it, I'd say it's closer to PAWPAW, but even that's a stretch.

@Francis I guessed "pike" from "turnpike", which I've heard of (I assume the former is a shortening of the latter?) As in Paul Simon's lyrics, "counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike..."

@Andrzej We Brits (and Americans) also put our suitcases on clean hotel beds. Whenever my non-British wife sees this on TV she freaks out. I long ago learned to change into inside clothes whenever entering the house - I'm sure it makes me go outside less though, what with the faff of getting changed every time. I suspect if left to my own devices I'd revert back to wearing outside clothes inside - not on the bed though. And shoes off for sure. Although, for the record, I do think it's mainly psychological. Most carpets harbour many more bugs than the sole of a shoe ever will*... *no sources cited

@Andrzej I maintain you've only ever described badly cooked congee! Well-cooked congee is barely identifiable as rice, and never "watery". Calling it overcooked is like calling oat porridge "overcooked oats". It's a thick, creamy bowl of comfort with a beautiful mouthfeel. Clearly the internet has too much exposure to bad congee! But I can certainly imagine if you were given bad congee you wouldn't want it again...

@Ιασων I spent a long time trying to work out how MEDIC would fit the clue "Press". Oh well. I'd suggest that "snap, crackle AND pop" would be a marginally better clue, in that they are all examples of ONOMATOPEIA.

@kkseattle Well yes, if there were always 12 Xs in a Y. But sometimes there are 16 (cups to a gallon), sometimes there are 8 (pints to a gallon), sometimes 14 (pounds to a stone). Or sometimes even 22 (yards to a chain). More fun for sure though ;-)

@Sam Lyons Brits of my age (millennials) must be unusual in the world in that for the first 10 years of my life (at least), I only knew of temperatures in Fahrenheit. "Put your shorts on everyone, it's going to be in the 80s today!". And then it was gradually fazed out completely during the 1990s. So I consider myself pretty bi-temperature-lingual, although my Fahrenheit is a bit rusty if I haven't used it in a while.

@Sam Lyons Haha, thanks Sam. This kind of dedicated research is exactly why I know, deep down, that I don't have a leg to stand on. Unlike French, the English language is to be manipulated and played with however the writer sees fit. Who knows, maybe one day I won't even bother using adverbs any more. Write smarter. Save words.