PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - N-Word (yet again!)
View Single Post
Old 6th Jan 2013, 20:25
  #26 (permalink)  
Old-Duffer
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Northamptonshire
Posts: 1,458
Received 19 Likes on 9 Posts
I had cause to visit the offices of a well known business consultancy in Chicago. The purpose being to discuss a computer software project.

During the debate on something or another, I used the phrase 'fag packet design'; comments which left one or two people horror struck!

Following the next coffee break, I had to apologise for my gaff and explain that in UK a 'fag packet' was a cigarette carton and had nothing to do with one's sexual orientation. I also had to explain that F.P.D was a phrase for something scratched out quickly and without recourse to formal design conventions.

I think it was W S Churchill who commented that: 'the US and Brits were two peoples separated by a common language'.

Old Duffer
Old-Duffer is offline