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Question for anyone from England/Britain

edited November -1 in General Discussion
so, i'm reading The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, which is set in England, and there's this one part in the book:

Jack: How can you sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can't make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless.

Algernon: Well, I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them.


so, i need to know for my project: are they speaking of these muffins-
image
(haha love the caption)
which i know as "muffins"

or are they these muffins-
image
which i (and everyone else i know from the US) call "English muffins?"

and, to add to that, cuz i just thought of it today- do people from England just call English muffins "muffins?" and if so, what do you call what i call muffins (the first picture)?
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Comments

  • I love this thread. I have no idea.
  • lol... that made me crack up. I'm not from England or whateves.... but if I had to guess I'd say the second one... cause I don't think people usually butter the 1st one. But I have on authority on this question lol.
  • dang, i really need to know.

    hahah thanks though. read this book, it's pretty great. after that they argue for like a page about muffins. but what kind?!?
  • Ok, I'm not from England, so I may be totally wrong.

    However, I recently was in the Importance of Being Earnest (Cecily, beetches!), and my director (who is a stickler for period accuracy) told us that "english muffins" were, in fact, the correct thing before.

    However, this is coming from the woman who suggested that we redo Twelfth Night and set it on Mars... so I could be totally wrong.

    P.S. I agree with Connyfoo, kickass thread.

    P.P.S. Oscar Wilde may be one of the most brilliant comic writers ever. Really. I love that man... or at least his ghost. Enjoy the play, it's full of amazing quips and is so much fun.
  • wait so what kind of muffins are you saying that they're talking about? the second picture kind?

    super cool that you were Cecily. have you seen the movie, with Rupert Everett and Reese Witherspoon?

    haha and thanks for the replies, you folks are kind
  • The second. We ate them backstage.

    I have seen the movie, but I wasn't so thrilled with Reese's performance (excuse me for a moment, I'm going to be a total theatre elitist bitch); Cecily is supposed to be very lighthearted, innocent, and generally uncorrupted and happy. Reese was very reserved and somber, too somber I thought, for Cecily. However, the rest of the cast did an awesome job, even though the writers somewhat tore apart the play. It was still awesome.
  • gotcha about the muffins.

    haha after reading the play i want to watch the movie again, i saw it like a year ago. from what i can remember i really liked it though, don't know about Reese's apparent somberness tongue.gif
  • P.S. Check out the kick-ass fashions:
    image

    I adore those huge sleeves, as awful as they are.
  • I love you two for this thread. The Importance of Being Earnest is such an amazing play--that's so awesome that you played Cecily! Oscar Wilde is indeed a pretty sweet dude.

    Ew, I hate Victorian clothes. Those sleeves and the bustles....ugh. haha
  • Haha, the corsets were the worst. As much as I was in love with mine (after you wear it for a while, it grows on you), when I took it off, I would have marks around my entire stomach and back from the ribbing. It was difficult to breathe, but the others girls and I pranced around in them anyway (I was chastized for not being "modest" enough backstage. hahaha).

    The sleeves are the devil.
  • I believe our local Englander, Andy the Pandy Bear, should be able to answer this.

    If not, then I have no idea.
  • QUOTE (tonetoile @ Jan 9 2006, 07:40 PM)
    However, I recently was in the Importance of Being Earnest (Cecily, beetches!),
    However, this is coming from the woman who suggested that we redo Twelfth Night and set it on Mars... so I could be totally wrong.


    P.P.S. Oscar Wilde may be one of the most brilliant comic writers ever.  Really.  I love that man... or at least his ghost.  Enjoy the play, it's full of amazing quips and is so much fun.

    QUOTE (tonetoile @ Jan 9 2006, 08:03 PM)
    Haha, the corsets were the worst.  As much as I was in love with mine (after you wear it for a while, it grows on you), when I took it off, I would have marks around my entire stomach and back from the ribbing.  It was difficult to breathe, but the others girls and I pranced around in them anyway (I was chastized for not being "modest" enough backstage. hahaha).

    The sleeves are the devil.


    Hahaha. I want you to direct a production of The Importance of Being Earnest on Mars. I want to be Cecily, though. That's brilliant. And my Drama Teacher hates high comedy, so we never get to do any plays by Oscar Wilder. We're reading it at the end of the year in British Literature, though. I'm really looking forward to it. I love how psychotic Cecily is. She writes letters to herself from Earnest, who doesn't really exsist in the first place. And she bought herself an engagement ring. I totally want to do that to some guy someday. Just to freak him out. laugh.gif
    Oh and I did a show over the summer at acting conservatory. It really sucked because our director had no sense of direction. It was really awful. He rewrote The Birds by Aristophanes, but he did it to make fun of George Bush. And MY parents are Republicans. That went well, you can imagine. Back to the point. I had to wear a corset. I was the nightingale, and I had a solo to sing. It really hurt to breathe. So I could only sing like 1 measure at a time, or I would pass out. And the lines that the stays left imprinted in my waist stayed there for about six hours after every performance. The dress I was wearing was a leftover from the costume closet, and it was made for someone with b-cups, which I am not. My cups overfloweth in that dress. Everyone was telling me to cover up, but honestly, I couldn't. Yeah. I'm not sure what my point was.

    Also, I would like to know if French Toast is just called "toast" in France.
  • Oh goodness, it was amazing to be completely crazy.
    "Amd this is the box in which I keep all your darling letters"
    "but my darling cecily, I never wrote you any letters"
    "Oh you needn't hardly remind me of that Earnest. I remember I was forced to write all your letters for you, I wrote three times a week and somewtimes oftener"
  • here comes muffin....muffin the mule

    image


    Muffin the Mule
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
    Jump to: navigation, search
    Muffin the Mule is a puppet character in BBC television programmes for children broadcast between 1946 and 1955.

    A mule puppet had been originally created in the 1930s by Fred Tickner for puppeteers Jan Bussell and Ann Hogarth. It was not until 1946, when they were working with presenter Annette Mills (sister of John Mills), that Muffin was named and used for a television appearance in an edition of For The Children broadcast on August 4 1946.

    The character, with his signature tune "We want Muffin" proved popular, and ran on BBC television in his own series until 1955. A wide range of spin-off merchandise was also made using the Muffin character.

    Jan Bussell and Ann Hogarth, and later their daughter Sally McNally (1936-2004), continued to use Muffin in their own shows. Eight surviving original episodes are available on DVD.

    In 2003 the rights to Muffin were bought by Maverick Entertainment Plc and a new 26 part animated version of Muffin returned to BBC TV in September 2005.
  • me, with all my great english know how..would say they were on about the english muffins i.e :

    image "EAT ME!"

    seeing as america land hadn't raped us with all there products yet =)

    dont know bout anyone else..but i call american muffins "american muffins"
  • QUOTE (Head Full of Crazy @ Jan 10 2006, 12:35 PM)
    dont know bout anyone else..but i call american muffins "american muffins"


    Hehe.

    Starbucks lady: Would you like anything else with your soy carmel macchiato?
    Andy: A double chocolate American muffin.

    I don't know why that's funny, but I think it is.
  • well if i was in *bucks i would just ask for a muffin...as thats a little peice of....america...i hate *bucks anyways...to american corperate for my taste
  • yeah starbucks coffee isn't even good. It sure as hell isn't worth $3 a cup.
  • aha! gee whiz, thanks a lot.

    so do you just call english muffins "muffins?" and whaaaaat! "american muffins!" that's crazy. i didn't know they were considered american. maybe i just should have looked up the origin of muffins in the first place.
  • Yes, but what about french toast? And I love little hippie/Beatnik coffee shops. Independent businesses. We must support them.
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