Author Archive

I was looking for some action But all I found was cigarettes and alcohol You could wait for a lifetime To spend your days in the sunshine… Oasis Is there a more succinct way to epitomize student culture in the UK? Favorite0

When I was 45, I was married again, with two children and living in England. I consider moving to a foreign country to be a very daring act. It wasn’t easy for me. Just because we speak the same language doesn’t mean we speak the same language. I didn’t understand that there

Britain is just a small island … no one pays any attention to them. Dmitry Peskov (allegedly) Reference Wow, what a major way to insult an ex-mighty empire! Favorite0

In the light of this epiphany I even managed to make sense of the state of mind which led to the making of such brilliant examples of native comedy as the episode Divided We Stand (1972) from the sitcom Steptoe & Son. In this episode, middle-aged Harold, who lives with his senile

English cuisine is generally so threadbare that for years there has been a gentlemen’s agreement in the civilized world to allow the Brits pre-eminence in the matter of tea—which, after all, comes down to little more than have ability to boil water. —Fred Metclalf, Penguin Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, p.85 Favorite0

He thought risotto was an Italian football player but he prepared this in five minutes. —TV advert Favorite0

As soon as the French start queuing up for baked beans, I shall commit harakiri, simply by leaning slowly on my favourite carving knife. Yes: the day the French start eating canned steak and kidney pie with a little tomato ketchup on top it will mark the end of a great civilization,

Like most British people, I see my body as a disused Methodist chapel, now used for storage of unsold jumble. —David Stafford, “Gut reactions”, The Guardian Weekend, October 5, 1996, p.14 Favorite0

Jeremy Paxman in his new book on the English argues that “for the majority of people, eating out is to consume fat-filled fast food, and to eat in, to be a victim of something pre-packaged”. —Cosmo Landesman, “May we have the pleasure?”, The Guardian, Saturday October 17, 1998 Favorite0

The English can be explained by their Anglo-Saxon heritage and the influence of Methodists. But I prefer to explain them in terms of tea, roast-beef and rain. A people is first what it eats, drinks and gets pelted with. —Pierre Daninos, Major Thomson and I, (1957) from the Oxford Dictionary of Humorous