It’s a Load of Old (British) Rubbish
Sir Winston Churchill, the great British war leader, declared that the Brits and Americans are two people divided by a common language. Nowhere is this truer than with rubbish, where American and the Brits do speak a completely different language. Why it is in this area of human endeavour that such a great wedge has been driven between the Brits and their former colony is beyond me, but as a service to my transatlantic readers, I have posted the following glossary of terms:
rubbish = trash
bin = trashcan
binman = refuse collector
local council = municipality
aluminium = aluminum
gobsmacked = astounded
lorry = truck
In the UK and parts of the former Empire, the day after Christmas is known as Boxing day. The pundits at Wikipedia are divided as to the origin of this term. My personal theory is that it’s the day the fraught nerves of the man of the house finally snap and he boxes a random relative about the ears. However, a more widely accepted explanation is that it derives from the term Christmas Box, referring to the presents that Victorian servants received on the day after Christmas. Presumably, they would have…
