Miscellany

[magid]

This morning on the radio, the announcer caught himself and revised "soldiers" to "troops" (as in "In Iraq, three troops were injured today as..."). Is there any difference? I mean, I know what a soldier is, a unit of one. "Troop", however, is much less specific (a quick check shows that indeed, troop refers to a collection of [soldiers/ boy scouts/ dragoons/ animals]). When did the troop = soldier equivalency begin? And why?

I didn't have time at the Butcherie this morning to look at all the amazing (and sometimes scary) Passover products that are in (I'm not surprised that there are not only cake and brownie mixes, but pancake mix, muffin mix, and rugelach mix. I suspect I can live an entire eight days without rugelach, which is likely sub-par rugelach, too.). I did get some "Real Vegetarian Liver" (eggplant based, not vegan due to eggs). I'm curious if any regular chopped liver is labeled "Fake Vegetarian Liver", or if that's reserved for another product.
edit: I'd forgotten about another Passover product I'd not seen before: honey beer. Er, yeah.

It looks like the snow has stopped, temporarily. The slowness of snowfall has meant it never turned into a major weather event, but having had a taste of spring (I'd even spotted a few early crocuses and snowdrops blooming), I'm ready for clear skies again.

There are more songbirds about. Yesterday I saw a number of different small ones, plus the ever-obvious cardinal, easy to spot in his red coloring against the drap empty trees and white snow. [Yes, mitre and all. *grin*]

I'll be offline from tonight until Monday. Have a good weekend and happy equinox.

Comments

[queue.livejournal.com]

Well, "soldier" can also be used to refer to a member of the United States Army. There are also members of the United States Marine Corps over there, so "soldier" doesn't apply to them in that sense.

[magid.livejournal.com]

The primary definition of soldier is member of an army, but the secondary definition is an enlisted person or noncom officer, which I think would apply to any branch of the service (though my military knowledge is quite small, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong).

Colloquially, at least, I'd think 'soldier' would be an easier map onto 'member of the armed forces' than 'troop' would be, in all its collective nounity (nounality? nounation? nounosity? 'nounness' uses too few different letters for my taste :-)

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I think the key issue is this.

"soldier" conjures up a specific image of a person.

"troop" is, somehow, more abstract and less personal.

Basically, it's the same sort of logic behind referring to casualties as "inoperative combat units".

[jwg.livejournal.com]

It used to annoy me to no end when upper management asked me, lower management, when I was going to inform the troops about something. BTW, are people in the Air Force called soldiers?

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

"Airman" is the generic term for a member of the Air Force (though can be confusing, as it is also a specific rank).

[magid.livejournal.com]

Who designed this language, anyway?

(Now, if that were the only confusing thing...)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Who designed it? The military, obviously ;)

[magid.livejournal.com]

What, you don't approve of a military pardigm for commercial situations? What is the world coming to?

I don't know about the Air Force. [see also my reply to Queue, above.]

[cellio]

Passover {cakes, muffins, rugalach, etc etc} really seem to be missing the point to me. Ok, I'm perfectly willing to grant someone else's superior halachic skillz, but it seems excessive to me -- and also a risk of marit ayin, giving a wrong impression. C'mon; it's only 8 (or 7) days; cope. :-)

Is "honey beer" a strange name for mead? Mead is tasty, but I think of it as more wine-like than beer-like.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm with you; I dislike all the fake mezonot, too. I think the problem is that people get into a mindset of lack, trying to replace the things that aren't kosher-l'Pesach, rather than looking at all the things that are. I suspect my diet isn't quite as starch-based as many, though. And though I like dessert, I'm happy with fruity and/or chocolatey desserts.

I think it was actual beer (I didn't look too closely), perhaps flavored with honey? (For all I know, it was a brand name.)