Forum: Author Hangout

About the only information I would add to that is that some pubs have more than one bar. There can be a public bar, a saloon bar and a lounge bar. Where there is only one it would be the public bar...the other two generally have slightly more comfortable furnishings and any games like darts, bar billiards or shove ha'penny would usually be in the public bar.

About the only information I would add to that is that some pubs have more than one bar. There can be a public bar, a saloon bar and a lounge bar. Where there is only one it would be the public bar...the other two generally have slightly more comfortable furnishings and any games like darts, bar billiards or shove ha'penny would usually be in the public bar.

Correct b u t .... the old fashioned public bar for men only with a dirt or wooden floor covered in straw and spittle is now out because of 'elf 'n saftee and wimmin's roights. Now it might have a clean polished wooden floor but it is bi-sex and more refined with tables, chairs and perhaps bar games like darts, even snooker/billiards/some US equivalent.

There will always be snacks (crisps = U.S. chips etc) and very often full meals, some almost to Michelin standards. (Heston's Fat Duck with three stars is exceptional)
Be aware that UK meals tend to be smaller than those the USA is infamous for - we will have 8oz steaks instead of 32oz for example. Many pubs are owned/managed by beer breweries and often have specials such as a cut price menu or smaller dishes and prices for OAPs. (If you want examples I have plenty of pub menus here. They can be cheaper than buying the ingredients and eating at home)
Hours are often fluid - one chain, Wetherspoons, is open from breakfast time, say 8am through to about 11pm. Other pubs can open later and some have live music until midnight - a regular band leader at one of my "local"s has had a UK #1 hit so standards can be high.
Enough background for your story?

but it is bi-sex

That is discrimination against those of alternate genders...and those who buy sex. ;)

Things must have rocketed downhill in the last 15 or so years though, if Weatherspoons is now considered a pub. The last one I went in was more like a karaoke joint catering for unshaven men and middle aged women in crop tops and pubic pelmets (aka mini skirts). I left a few minutes later and would have felt safer in my local biker hangout.
I now live in a dry US town and I do miss my old UK local - a free house - which didn't have a juke box and where you could actually catch up on village news. The vicar and local plod both went there regularly and the car park was small enough that there were few outsiders.

Wet county, but dry town (technically a city, but a town as far as size is concerned). I don't think there are any bars in the county either, but there are premises outside the city that sell alcohol.

Wet county, but dry town

We have the reverse, wet town in a dry county. Bible Belt politics makes for some strange laws.

And you can tell where the county line is by the liquor stores and bars.

And you can tell where the county line is by the liquor stores and bars.

Me, I can't fathom that. I live in Wisconsin.

We have lots of little small towns with populations of less than 500, but they have at least one bar and many have several.

Egg Harbor, Wisconsin population 203 has one liquor license* for every nine residents.

*covers bars, restaurants, liquor stores

That is discrimination against those of alternate genders...and those who buy sex. ;)

I don't know of anywhere open to the general public where it is acceptable to check their organs to see if they have organs inappropriate to their apparent gender - we merely assume that people are what they appear to be when clothed. Of course if an apparent male went into the ladies loo and was found out ...... though of course there is one class of human males who have the inalienable right to use the ladies' loos in appropriate circumstances (work that one out!)

Things must have rocketed downhill in the last 15 or so years though, if Weatherspoons is now considered a pub. The last one I went in was more like a karaoke joint catering for unshaven men and middle aged women in crop tops and pubic pelmets (aka mini skirts).

Your experience has to relate to the area. I go to one in the City and one in TOWIELAND and they are both like any other pub with quiet piped muzak (a curse on the inventor's line).

In the same street there is a classic ancient pub which is a bit worse than you describe - ten days ago a patron reversed his car over bystanders with whom presumably he had had a barney in the street and the entry guards make American Footballers look like 6 stone weaklings.

I now live in a dry US town and I do miss my old UK local - a free house - which didn't have a juke box and where you could actually catch up on village news. The vicar and local plod both went there regularly and the car park was small enough that there were few outsiders.

Yes, we still have a majority of pubs like that though they usually only have two, perhaps three bitters on tap. Normally good very friendly service.

A few comments about Mr Plod. I know of one country pub where the peeler would come round ten minutes after closing time to ensure the place was empty and the door was locked so no more could be served. Having checked the other pubs he would return, enter by the back door, be greeted by the customers and buy his pint or whatever.

I was in a pub celebrating a girl's 18th birthday (local minimum age to buy alcohol) when a couple of peelers came in. Straight to me "how old are you?" reply "20", to the girl the same question "today is my 18th birthday" so they left. Not one of the 10 or 15 other students in the group was old enough but we were all buying and drinking!

Just remembered: you can go to our local microbrewery and it is a bit like the old public bars. Trestle tables, bench seats, stone floor, no muzak!. Last time I was there they had about 15 beers on tap - you paid a refundable quid (U K pound) for a glass and beer is two quid a pint which is about half of high street pub prices.

You mentioned vicars and plods; I wonder how many of your countrymen understood those - you realise that we speak a nearly different language though Hollywood has forced us to learn yours!

Plods (they plod around the streets all day and night), peelers (founded by Sir John Peel), rozzers (I don't know the origin of that abuse) are policemen or women

You mentioned vicars and plods; I wonder how many of your countrymen understood those - you realise that we speak a nearly different language though Hollywood has forced us to learn yours!

Hey. I speak English, not a colonial variation, so whilst I admit to residing in the states since the end of the last century, I was London born and bred. ;)
I was aware that plod probably wasn't known here, but the thought that vicar wouldn't be had never crossed my mind. On that basis I would guess curates and rectors aren't known here either, which must make some of the older whodunit stories a bit less comprehensible since all those offices have almost a caricature personality that the English would understand without explanation.

On that basis I would guess curates

I the US we use curator, but it's not common. A curator is someone who oversees a museum, library or art gallery.

Vicar is also not unknown in the US, but is again rare.

We do have Roman Catholic churches and the term is also use by the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church in the US is an Affilate of the Church of England.

On that basis I would guess curates

I the US we use curator, but it's not common. A curator is someone who oversees a museum, library or art gallery.

A curate is an officer of the church one level below a priest.

A rector has nothing to do with a rectum; depending on the deeds of an Anglican church it might have a vicar or a rector - they have the same function.

This true story goes back to about 1950 at the church of St Winwaloe when the rector had to be replaced - could have been death, retirement - I don't remember.

The bishop can appoint a vicar to the living of a parish but in this case the Churchwardens (lay members of the individual church's council) had the right to refuse to accept the bishop's suggested replacement and found and appointed a rector themselves.

The UK has many types of law; this was an example of Ecclesiastical Law rather that law passed by Parliament. It may have changed now.

Edit; the name was changed back to the original spelling in about 2006

the only question was whether there's a special term other than "behind the bar" for the space behind the bar,

Here in the western U.S., at least, the shelves, carvings, mirrors and other elaborate construction or display on the wall behind the bar is known simply as a "back bar" ... noun. In some actual 1800's "saloons" that I can reference in central Idaho, the 'back bar' is a large mahogany construction, elaborate and ornate.

I would use cellar man, if anything, but in most pubs I used to frequent the bar staff restocked the bar. Like you, I have never heard of the term.

The People's Republic of Massachusetts doesn't make much more sense.