Surplus Ike jackets

[Riverkilt]

Well the holding cell post turned up on my email....

If what that poster said were true we'd have no reenactors.

In my case, its my choice and it is a choice of HONOR. My father (RAF, Army Air Corps when we were losing at Dieppe and Kassarine Pass) and my uncle (U.S. Army fought across France and Germany and was in the first company to liberate Dachau) are long dead. Anyone who thinks I'm a War2 veteran doesn't do math well. I'd have to be 90 something to have served.

And thanks for the moderation.

[sydnie7]

There goes English Bloke speaking in tongues again. . .

Smashin' and crackin' have been used in context that allows me to grasp their [presumed] meaning.

But "bit of a snip"? Am I to look for a rhyming construct (along the lines of apples = stairs or "having a butcher's") or is this some new piece of "separated by a common language" to deal with?

[English Bloke]

There goes English Bloke speaking in tongues again. . .

Hehehehehe... sorry!

Smashin' : The apostrophe indicates a dropped "g" as pronounced, or rather not pronounced by the common people from the North (Thass mee tharriz). Those from a 'port out, starboard home' background never drop letters and would pronounce it "smairshing"... or summat like that. It means, as you've probably gathered, "very good indeed, the very best"

Crackin' : same as above (Craeking in POSH, as in, "I say! That is craeking, absolutely top hole old boy").

Bit of a snip? : A bargin, an article reduced in cost or "cut price", hence snip.

If I can help with any other idioms or Englishisms, please feel free to ask. It's good to have a grasp of how the other folks speak.

[madmacs]

There goes English Bloke speaking in tongues again. .

Dang colonials... i undetstood him fine... have a feeling my wife might have been in the same boat as you though...

[Mael Coluim]

Reminds me with my English aunts here next week, I better call my fanny pack a bum bag!

[Orvis]

"Smashing" is originally from the Scots Gaelic " 'S math sinn ", meaning "that is good". In Gaelic it sounds like "s-mah-shin".

[Mike_Oettle]

The South African Army used battledress as formal uniform (alongside nutria bush uniform) right up to 1994.
The original gaberdine was replaced by something more like barathea not long before I began my training. The woollie battledress tops worn by some of the older chaps in my regiment looked considerably warmer (an advantage, since we had our annual camps in the middle of winter).
I disliked the waist fit of the jacket (blouse, it was called formally) because it never quite lined up with the trousers (which we wore during our national service).
And when I joined the regiment and was issued with a kilt, I found that it often rode up above the kilt, too.
For that reason I personally would rather not wear anything that short with a kilt.
But you chaps seem pretty keen on the style.
Regards,
Mike

[English Bloke]

... I found that it often rode up above the kilt, too. For that reason I personally would rather not wear anything that short with a kilt.
But you chaps seem pretty keen on the style...

I'm just trying it out Mike and who's to say, in this liberated, no rules world that it has to be fastened up? It's been obsolete for a goodly while so I'm free of the dress regs that would once have determined how it had to be worn. 'tis just another coat now.

... "Smashing" is originally from the Scots Gaelic " 'S math sinn ", meaning "that is good". In Gaelic it sounds like "s-mah-shin"...

Well I never knew that... fascinating! I love Etymology, particularly in relation to dialect and colloquial slang. Interesting that 'S math sinn has evolved into a standard phrase across English Lancashire and Yorkshire though, I wonder how that came about...