Cookery Books: Britain's Gift to America

As many of you know, by day I'm a professional writer, so it's especially thrilling when I can write about my obsessions (cookbooks, Anglophilia) for a publication I adore. Today, a piece I wrote about my obsession with British cookbooks is up on The Atlantic's Food Channel. Enjoy!

Want to learn how to social climb in England? Hire English Mentors

I thought it was a joke when I read in the Daily Mail that the Duchess of York participated in an advertisement for English Mentors, a service that promises to help children of foreigners fit into upper-crust British society.

It's no joke, folks. This venture has a website, which includes details about the mentoring they offer, as well as must-see video. (Love the military guy!) If you've got an extra £100,000 sitting around, you can pack off your nose-picking Dmitri or chavvy Brittny to an English country house where a member of the British aristrocracy will show them the proper way to dine, dress, interview for boarding school, and stumble out of Mahiki at 3:15 a.m. without looking bleary eyed. Well, that last one I made up, but you get the idea. Around the halfway mark, I fully expected John Cleese to step in with, "And now for something completely different ..."

Here's a link to the video for English Mentors. Let me know what you think. I loved the little slip of Manchester United near the end of the vid -- was this a subliminal message for the Beckhams and the Rooneys to sign their kids up pronto? Or children of Russian oligarchs or Arab sheiks need only apply?

USDA reconsiders ban on haggis

Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are examining the decades-old ban on haggis, Scotland's national dish. For those of you not in the know, here's Wikipedia's description: "Haggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours." The ban was enacted during a breakout of Mad Cow Disease in the late '80s.

I'm pleading the gastronomic Fifth on this -- I resumed my vegetarian diet over a year ago -- but in all seriousness, I would happily gobble down some Scottish haggis over a slab of beef procured from a midwestern feedlot.

Keep calm and carry on. Or not.

I've mentioned my love of the Keep Calm and Carry On posters in the past and have kept my eyes open for the spoofs now that the posters have become ubiquitous. Some of my new favorites:

Keep calm and rock on $25.99.

Now Panic and Freak Out $15

More parodies here. I want the Now Panic and Freak Out on a coffee mug!

My favorite Brit words

While I love a good British accent, I'm more enthralled with the way Brits construct their sentences, the words they use. Even if you Americanize the spelling of  a paragraph written by a Brit writer (such as changing "Americanise" to "Americanize") there's a certain rhythm and cadence to their sentences that sound nothing like American English.

But let's talk about Brit words or expressions, words I can't use in my everyday American speech lest I sound like a poseur. Here are some of my favorites in no particular order:

Fancy. Verb made popular by Austin Powers. As in "Fancy a shag?"

Stroppy. Ill-tempered.

Gobsmacked. Flabbergasted. I admit, I use this word sometimes.

Brilliant. Used in assent, as in "Brilliant! I'll bring the wine."

Wanker. So much nicer than dickhead. I get to say wanker a lot, though, when I'm talking to my Australian friend Deb. Wanker is popular Down Under.

Barrister. So much nicer than lawyer or attorney. Think John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda.

Cheeky. Means impertinent. Often used around children.

Petrol. The gas station gone exotic.

Jolly. Who can resist, "He's a jolly fellow, all right."

What are your favorite Brit words? Add them to the comments section below.

Oldest remains of British royal found

A rather lurid headline, but an interesting story nonetheless. The remains of English princess Eadgyth of Wessex, who was born in 910 and was "the Princess Diana of her day," were found entombed under a 16th century monument in a German cathedral. Records show that Eadgyth (pronounced Edith) died around age 36 after marrying King Otto the 1st of Germany and bearing him two children. Eadgyth was also the granddaughter of Alfred the Great. Tests were done on the remains, as well as the tomb, by the University of Bristol, and results were announced yesterday in a half-day conference entitled "Princess Eadgyth of Wessex and Her World."

Read more here.

Ricky Gervais hosts the Golden Globes

Did you watch the Golden Globes last night? I get tired watching award shows -- they drag on forever -- plus last night was the two-hour season premiere of 24. But I found this YouTube clip of the highlights of Ricky Gervais's hosting duties, and in ten minutes I got all the jokes in one neat package. I thought he did fine. I laughed at loud at his Angelina Jolie and Mel Gibson jokes, and loved his barb about The Office (the U.S. version) jumping the shark. What about you? Funny or not? Do you think he'll be invited back?