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Pants in the Boot
Hosted by Glenn Fleishman
The United Kingdom and America are two countries separated by the same language, George Bernard Shaw never said, and we’ll be proving that in this podcast. We gather Incomparable panelists from the UK and America, as well as Canada and other English-speaking regions, and try to explain to each other the distinctions between biscuit and cookie, lemonade and fizzy water, public school and, er, public school, and why when we put our pants in our boot, we mean something altogether different.
41 Broek in de Laars
Two of our panelists have Dutch origins and so we veer from our usual discussion of things related to English to dive briefly into salty licorice, Christmas holiday letters made of chocolate, and stroopwafel dipping.
Previous Episodes
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May 9, 2022 Surprisingly Moist
40 The Candy Man Can’t
We’re sweet on sugar, but many of our panelists don’t cotton to American candy—including the American participants. We discuss our favorite chocolate bars and confections, Glenn forgets the word for licorice briefly, seaside rock crops up, and we drop into dipping Tim Tams. The Surgeon General warns that this episode might exceed your sugar allocation for the year.
This is our membership drive episode—become an Incomparable member! Sign up, support our show, and get access to exclusive podcasts! We’ve scheduled a special members-only live and then archived video session of Pants in the Boot in which we eat candies and sweets of various countries and describe our reactions. We’ll take questions and comments from members during the recording on May 14 at 10 am PDT! Become a member for all the details!
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April 25, 2022 Fizzy Lifting Thinks
39 Brew Who?
Soda, pop, soda pop, soft drink, tonic, seltzer, and other fizzy drinks form the sweet backbone of our discussion as panelists talk about their childhood drinks, fountains and soda jerks, and a special beverage from Malta.
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April 11, 2022 Korg Lite
38 Secret New Zealander
People who speak English with one accent trying to ape another region or country’s often sound ridiculous to the people of that other place—but convincing to those from their native land’s impression of what people in that other place sound like. Benedict Cumberbatch, just for instance. Confused? It’ll all make sense when we go to Glasgow.
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March 28, 2022 A grave matter
37 Accents Acute
There’s something about the way people in different countries makes those from others swoon. But there’s often a disdain for regional accents, particularly ones that have class markers. In a language with few accent marks above letters, we talk about the dulcet tones we like from around the world.
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March 14, 2022 Put your left hand in
36 All Language Is Made Up
Hokey crokey, Batman! We start by talking about nonsense words—words that are filler and mean nothing in the language or dialect in which they’re used—but then transition to more meaningful matters, like the way in which aboriginal and native languages in various countries have made inroads into English. The movie Brave is mentioned and, of course, Johnny Vegas of St Helens.
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January 24, 2022 License and registration please
35 The Detector Van Is a Lie
The television license is mythical to those of us in the United States, but it’s prosaic part of having high-quality programming in the UK. We talk about the kinds of over-the-air, satellite, streaming, and cable TV available to us, our feelings on Rupert Murdoch, and did you know Glenn’s dad sold cable door to door in 1979?
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January 10, 2022 Quids pro quo
34 Money Money Money Money Money Money Money Money
Money is the root of all evil and the topic of this podcast. What in heaven’s name is spondulix? A pound is not a guinea. A five might be a finif, if you’re a gangster or read hard-boiled detective novels. Learn a little history and our favorite terms for money, as well as why those terms feel like they’re going extinct. Stay tuned after the episode for tooth-fairy inflation.
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December 27, 2021 Just add sugar
33 Marmaladoo, Are You Jelly?
We’re in a jam about jelly. What Americans think of as jelly is rarely eaten outside North America, while other folks worried we were putting a gelatin-brand product on our peanut-butter sandwiches. It’s all about the pectin! We compute the compote and cut our way through the fruit thicket, including having our way with curd. Stay tuned to the exciting post-show discussion about tiny hotel spreads.
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December 13, 2021 Nobody memorizes nine digits
32 Sing Your Favorite Postal Code
Everyone else’s postal codes seem bizarre until you start decoding them.
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November 29, 2021 That’s Housenumberwang!
31 We All Live at 123 Fake Street
North American house numbering makes no sense to people with more rational systems, like that of Glasgow, which James reads out during this episode. Why do U.S. and Canadian homes have extremely long numbers and how can you use this to find cross streets?