Tag Archives: The Brit List

The Brit List: Five British Terms for the Unemployed

By Fraser McAlpine | Posted on November 20th, 2012

A British dole queue. The past. (AP Photo)

Made Redundant

Let’s start with the nicest possible way to go from being in gainful employment to not being in gainful employment, when your job ceases to exist. It’s nothing you’ve done wrong, it’s merely that the company ...

The Brit List: Five Recent British Hits, Covered By YouTubers

By Fraser McAlpine | Posted on November 19th, 2012

Last week I had a bit of a moment getting grumpy about the gentrification of pop music, with particular reference to deliberately minimal and maudlin cover versions of old hits for the sake of advertisers. But that doesn’t mean ...

The Brit List: Five Great British Political Dramas

By Fraser McAlpine | Posted on November 5th, 2012

David Morrissey and John Simm in State of Play

Greetings from Limeytown! I’m told you’re having something of an election thing this week? Well, jolly good luck with it, and I hope you get the representative you feel you deserve.

The Brit List: 10 British Words That Don’t Have a U.S. Equivalent

By Fraser McAlpine | Posted on October 25th, 2012

Blag A little item of criminal slang that has found its way into common use. To blag something is to get it for free, possibly without deserving to.

The Brit List: 10 American Words or Phrases Adopted by Brits

By Fraser McAlpine | Posted on October 22nd, 2012

Bill and Ted: every bit as influential as their film said they were

In a forgotten corner of England’s green and (mostly) pleasant land — sure as the sun rises over the cricket pitch and the flies buzz around the damp thatch atop the old Post Office — some retired Colonel in the home ...

The Brit List: 15 Cool Uses for a London Black Cab

By Brigid Brown | Posted on October 15th, 2012

London black cabs will never lose their allure. The ride can be a bit pricey, but when you’re traveling in Britain’s capital, it’s nice to treat yourself. You definitely are traveling in style.

Ten Great British Songs Performed By Muppets

By Fraser McAlpine | Posted on October 15th, 2012

Note: some of these are songs performed with Muppets as well as by Muppets. But there are songs and there are Muppets, so that should be good enough for anyone.

The Brit List: 15 Cockney Rhyming Slang Terms

By Brigid Brown | Posted on October 9th, 2012

"I'm taking the twist out on the town tonight." (Susan Cohan)

It’s not 100 percent known how cockney rhyming slang — the replacement of a common word with a rhyming phrase — came about, but it’s typically thought that the tricky word play was a type of code amongst groups of people in 19th ...

Brit List: The ‘Doctor Who’ Ultimate List of Lists – Vote for Your Favorites!

By staff | Posted on October 5th, 2012

The folks over at BBC AMERICA’s series The Brit List want to know what Doctor Who fans think for an upcoming special. In The Brit List: The Doctor Who Ultimate List of Lists, they’ll be counting down the scariest monsters, ...