Friday, May 11, 2007

Canadianisms Part 4: The Drinking Game

Two-four: A case (24 bottles) of beer. "Do you guys need us to bring anything to the party tonight?" "Nope - we picked up a few two-fours this afternoon, so I think we're set!"

Rye: Rye whiskey. Bourbon is a good substitute in the U.S. I found this one out in a bar in San Jose, when I ordered a "rye and Coke" and received a blank stare.

Mickey: A 13-oz. bottle of alcohol (in the U.S., known as a fifth). In researching this particular Canadianism I found An American's Guide to Canada which basically renders the Canadianisms series on UFF obsolete, but, whatever. I know you'll be back, even if I am just rewriting content that exists elsewhere on the interwebs.

Pissed: Drunk. "They showed up with a two-four, but I was already pissed after drinking that mickey of rye." (Thanks to MFD for telling me about this one - it's a recent discovery.)

Give 'er: I would have defined this as "Step on it!" but a Google of the phrase gives me this rather crude definition:

To party as hard as possible and let nothing get in your way. Comes straight from Canada and indirectly Fubar [the movie, which is also Canadian, and about which I also learned tonight!].

Canadian #1: "Theres a party at Johnny's tonite..."
Canadian #2: Well, we best fuckin' give'er, eh"
Canadian #1: "Fo' shizzle, lets get some beer"
(Please note that thanks to K-Dog I LOVE the expression "fo' shizzle," even though it totally isn't Canadian.)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, I was driving home rather late recently and NPR was airing a CBC program that had two Canadian politicians arguing. One of them said "Oh, too bad, so sad" and for some reason that cracked me right up. Is that a Canadianism?

Gillian said...

My mom used to say that all the time, and I had no idea that it might be a Canadianism! Canadian readers? What say you?

Garth said...

Best way to order a rye in a US bar is to order "Canadian Club" or "Crown Royal". They'll inevitably have one (or both) but have no idea that they're referred to as "rye" (even though it says it on the freaking bottle).

Garth said...

And for the love of god, turn off image verification for posts. I just tried 3 times and wasn't typing what was there apparently. PITA.

Garth said...

Oh ya, and May 2-4. You should add that in there somewhere. Both with a reference to the queen and beer :)

Lisa said...

too bad so sad? EVERYBODY says that... thats Canadian?
Also: May 2-4 totally double meaning.
Gillian this post cracked me up. (And according to that site- Americans don't say housecoat? WHAT NEXT?)

Becca & Brian said...

Funny, Brian and I visited Absinthe in SF last night for some oysters. The last time we were there was with you and David back in October. On the very day you were blogging this, they were celebrating rye whiskey.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it's also possible I'm just the last person in the world to hear the expression so I thought it must be Canadian...

kajal said...

If you haven't seen Fubar yet, borrow my copy from Larry. It's where I learned give'er.