January 3, 201412 yr Active Members Just a heads up that this season's Downton Abbey cranks into gear Sunday, Jan. 5, 9:00 pm Eastern. Also the reason they killed off the heir apparent Matthew Crawley in last year's auto accident is that the actor found better employment elsewhere. I really couldn't figure that one out since it left so many story lines dead in the water. Stupid me, I guess it's obvious once they tell you. http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/downton-abbey-season-4-premiere-review-slow-grief-stricken-start-1.6701598
January 4, 201412 yr Active Members Very excited...I will be very interested to see how things develop moving forward. I have my tea and cookies (or should I say biscuits) ready and waiting. Next week I'll be watching with some wine.... btw, you can get both the biscuits and wine at World Market
January 4, 201412 yr Author Active Members I have my tea and cookies (or should I say biscuits) ready and waiting. Seems I must have been in my late teens before I discovered the English say biscuit when they really mean cookie. Come to think of it, I still don't know what they call a real biscuit. Surely they don't just conflate the two! And why do they put milk in perfectly good tea? Or just drink coffee, like real people? Daffy knobs, the lot of them.
January 4, 201412 yr Daffy knobs, the lot of them. Truly: http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2449-zany-brits/ http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/14663-scratchy-bottom-beats-brokenwind-but-shitterton-takes-the-prizefor-unfortunate-place-names/
January 4, 201412 yr I have seen Season 4 already and it is fabulous. The Downton Christmas Special was also a hoot. This show delivers time and time again. Simply fabulous.
January 5, 201412 yr Active Members I watched this online months ago. I wonder why North America gets it a year later? Apparently, it's PBS' top-rated show.
January 6, 201412 yr Active Members I wonder why North America gets it a year later? According to this article, there are three primary reasons why it doesn't launch here in September as it does in the U. K. 1. It would be up against the major networks' Fall schedules and might get lost in the noise. 2. The cast would have a harder time with promotional appearances in two countries at once. (This is the only one of the reasons I guessed.) 3. The U. S. version is slightly different from the U. K. version and it would be more expensive to have two editing rooms going at once. Despite all that, the producers apparently would prefer a Fall launch in the U. S. but PBS and Masterpiece Theater execs call the shots. While they don't yet see any compelling reason to change, they are thinking about it.
January 6, 201412 yr And why do they put milk in perfectly good tea? Or just drink coffee, like real people? Just to be clear, one adds tea to milk, never the reverse.
January 6, 201412 yr Author Active Members Just to be clear, one adds tea to milk, never the reverse. Seeing as I seem to have already outed you as an expert on English oddities, could you please tell me what the English call an American biscuit? Seriously, Hoover, the matter plagues me and I have no where else to turn.
January 6, 201412 yr Active Members I watched this online months ago. I wonder why North America gets it a year later? Apparently, it's PBS' top-rated show. I didn't know we could have gotten this current season online months ago...do tell where to find it online Mark. Last night was very enjoyable and so glad to have my Downton Abbey back Seeing as I seem to have already outed you as an expert on English oddities, could you please tell me what the English call an American biscuit? Seriously, Hoover, the matter plagues me and I have no where else to turn. That is a good question and I hope Hoover can answer it for us. I lived in London for a couple years 5 or so years ago, and while far from an expert on all things British, I never realized it before that I never came across our biscuit while there. For example, if I recall correctly, they serve an English muffin (which I suppose they would call it simply a muffin) in the McDonald's big breakfast over. So I could speculate that if one were to come across our biscuit over in the UK that it might be called an American muffin. Or perhaps an American scone? Will wait for Hoover to give us a more definitive answer.
January 6, 201412 yr While we await the final word from Hoover, the Internets when thus queried suggest the Brits have no exact equivalent, their scone or possibly bun or roll being closest. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006032807640 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091129125918AACrcXh
January 6, 201412 yr Active Members Most television is available for free to stream online within hours of its initial broadcast. I would have thought that would be a good incentive for PBS. I link to binge view entire series over a few days. It does take a bit of patience, clicking through to the right links and sometimes you have to let it load. This is one of my favourite portals: www.watchseries-online.eu
January 6, 201412 yr Active Members ITV player (the channel Downton runs on) requires a UK postal code. I've watched DA successfully in the past using an alias IP address. However, the past year, i was unsuccessful in logging on. Will have to try the watchseries-online.eu you suggested Thanks!
January 6, 201412 yr Active Members Fantastic and many thanks Mark....looks like I will be doing some marathon DA watching during these few very very cold days.
January 6, 201412 yr Author Active Members I lived in London for a couple years and ... I never came across our biscuit while there. The notion that the English lack an equivalent of our biscuit never even entered my head. I'm stunned. If we didn't inherit the biscuit from the English, where did it come from? The Germans, maybe? Or did we invent it all on our own?
January 7, 201412 yr American style biscuits don't have a UK equivalent. Scones are similar but the recipes are quite different.. And I can't imagine dunking a buttermilk biscuit into a cup of tea p.s. I'm not an expert on Brits! But I lived with one for five years and picked up a few things here and there.
January 7, 201412 yr But I lived with one for five years and picked up a few things here and there. Colorful image. Hodgepodge (sorry -- 'hotch-potch') of what the Web has to say about how biscuits American vs. otherwise came to be... http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuit http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuit_(bread) http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html http://wordsofbabel.blogspot.com/2007/07/history-of-biscuits-britannia.html?m=1 http://www.ask.com/question/where-does-the-word-biscuit-originate-from
January 7, 201412 yr PBS has an app on the AppleTV that offers these episodes for free. I watched the season premiere this morning on that app.
January 7, 201412 yr Author Active Members After intense study of the sources you provided, AS, I conclude that the modern American biscuit is technically a small quick bread relying on baking soda &/or baking powder for leavening. Who would have guessed? Further cursory googling of baking powder and backing soda lead me to believe that our glorious biscuit is in fact a purely American invention. (Seems that neither leavening agent was commercially available for baking purposes until the early 1800's.) Let's hear it for the USA!
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