Perfect Pedant

Unaware of the world outside of the U.S.A. ?

Despite the fact that I specifically mentioned New Zealand, Labrador, and the Yukon Territory?

Let me list some other good places for Scots to go reside:
The Northwest Territory, Saskatchewan, Greenland, northern Norway, Siberia, and Tasmania.
Take a good supply of Molotov cocktails with you and use them to help keep yourself warm in the wintertime.
D.A.W.

Definition: Scotland: a remote and isolated place in the North Atlantic that has much in common with West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, southern Missouri, the Yukon Territory, Labrador, and the South Island of New Zealand.

The South Island of New Zealand: a place having much in common with Scotland, including cities and towns named "Dunedin" and millions and millions of sheep, ponies, and relics of the Ice Ages. including people.
D.A.W. .

The darned thing refused to do my table as I commanded it to. Walk the plank!

The situation regarding such flammable substances is actually more complicated. I will make a small table with the equivalents going left-right:

British ------------ American & Canadian

petrol ------------- gasoline (good for making Molotov cocktails!)
paraffin ------------kerosine** or jet fuel (!) a.k.a. JP-4 or JP-5 this substance flows well,
-----------------------and it burns well in jet engines and in liquid-fueled rockets, especially with
-----------------------liquid oxygen. Kerosine could be used to make Molotov cocktails, too.

-----------------------paraffin - a thick, gooey petroleum that is used to help preserve food in jars. This can be burned - with a lot of trouble - but it is not nearlly as flammable as gasoline and kerosine are. It is impossible to conceive of this paraffin as a jet fuel or a rocket fuel.

------------------------petroleum jelly - similar to paraffin, but oilier and not so thick, used as a
------------------------base for ointments, as a lubricant, as a rust-inhibitor (when used to coat ---------------------------metals), et cetera. This substance can also be applied directly to the skin
------------------------or the lips as a moisturizer.

**Due to a misprint, an online dictionary says to spell it "kerosine" OR "kerosine".
Oh, well, you can spell my name "Dale", or you can spell it "Dale". It makes no difference to me!

Hi, AnWulf, I whole-heartedly agree with you:

"Unless a person knows that the Brits note 'petrol' insted of gas(oline), the term 'petrol-bomb' wouldn't make much sense." This is also true. "A 'fire bomb' would be understood." (anywhere in the English-speaking world).

The situation regarding such flammable substances is actually more complicated. I will make a small table with the equivalents going left-right:
British American & Canadian
petrol gasoline (good for making Molotov cocktails!)
paraffin kerosine or jet fuel (!) a.k.a. JP-4 or JP-5 this substance flows well, and it
burns well in jet engines and in liquid-fueled rockets..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
paraffin - a thick, gooey petroleum that is used to help preserve food in jars.
this can be burned - with a lot of trouble - but it is not nearlly as
flammable as gasoline and kerosine are.

petroleum jelly - similar to paraffin, but oilier and not so thick, used as a base
for ointments, as a lubricant, as a rust-inhibitor (when used to coat metals),
et cetera. This substance can also be applied directly to the skin or the lips as
a moisturizer.

Scots who don't want to learn anything about, "If A, then B," about engineering, incl. chemical engineering and electronics, and about the history of Russians fighting the Nazis by using Molotov cocktails, and improving their vocabularies, have a clear destiny in life:

Becoming the first Scots to take a flight on an Ariane.
By the way, the Ariane doesn't have anywhere to sit on the inside, so you will have to cling onto the outside.
That could be a fine place from which to fling some Molotov cocktails, however!
D.A.W.

Hairy Scot,

When you gripe about someone's use of a large number of words,
that is directly indicative of a lack of vocabulary of your own.
Why isn't this obvious to you?

When you gripe about the fine clothes that other people wear,
this implies that you don't have fine clothing of your own..

When you gripe about the fine autos that other people drive,
this implies that you don't have one of your own..

When you gripe about all of the people who have "X",
this implies that you don't have "X" of your own.
It is all quite logical.

The way to stay away from this kind of implications from reflecting on yourself is to remain silent on the subjects.

Then when you gripe that all you have is haggis to eat, then that implies....

D.A.W.

Hairy Scott, just because your vocabulary is not so large, and you don't want to learn any new words and phrases, e.g. "napalm", "kamikaze", "field-effect transistor", and "hydrodynamics" is no reason for you to try to insult people who know these things already.
Some of us have the philosophy of "Reach for the stars. You might not get there, but you will go a long way." Maybe you should become the first Scott to ride on an Ariane.

D.A.W.

Porsche, what makes you such an expert on the United States??
Where have you ever lived in this country?
In my case, I was born in Tennessee, and I have also resided in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Arizona, and California -- not in this order. A high percentage of Americans do not know anything about anything in the STATES other than their own. Among the most populous states, this fact is most salient in California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Then when it comes to the smaller states "not knowing anything" is even more pervasive, and all I should do now is to give you some examples: Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisina, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.

In the states that I have mentioned above, people who have never read a newspaper, or a serious magazine, or a book are very common. Then when it comes to going to movies, their fare is along the line of "Dumb and Dumber", "Bevis & Butthead", and movies in which people throw Molotov Cocktails at houses, churches, businesses, etc.
Oh, yes, to those millions and millions of folks, Molotov Cocktails are HOT STUFF !

They also enjoy Western movies that are set in 1910 instead of 1875 because in 1910, the characters could have machine guns instead of just pistols and rifles!

People in the United States who go to the theaters to watch the likes of SCHINDLER'S LIST, OUT OF AFRICA, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and THE IRON LADY are definitely in the minority.

So, when I say that people do not know what petrol is, I really mean it, and likewise for those who don't know that cars have bonnets.

D.A.W.

Nobody here pays any attention to "petrol" unless they served in the U.S. Air Force in England or in neighboring countries, or MAYBE in Germany.

Petrol might as well be something to gargle your throat with!

However, in Germany the verb for adding gasoline or petrol to your car is "tanken" -- which comes from the American phrase "to tank up".

We also do not mess around with "gasoline bomb". That sound weid.
We say "Molotov cocktail", or for the larger ones dropped by warplane: "napalm bomb".
This is despite the fact that those have not contained napalm since about 1948.
"Napalm" is an extract from coconut palms, but synthetic plastics and rubbers were found to be much better even back in 1948 or so.
Therefore, our napalm comes from a chemical factory, and then it is mixed with gasoline or kerosene.
Also, it is likely that our Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps does not use "napalm bombs" anymore. Those are considered to be brutal, nasty, and even uncivilized now.

I know that we used it during WW II, the Korean War, and the War in Vietnam, but it seems to have disappeared from places like Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.

During WW II against the Japanese, they were asking for it because generally they would never surrender no matter how much they got shelled, bombed, and starved. Hence, our Marines and soldiers, and the Aussies, turned to flamethrowers, napalm, and demolition charges.
The War in the Pacific should have ended in mid-1944 if only the Japanese military had "seen the light". They really had lost by then.
The amazing thing is that the Americans and the Japanese have been the firmest of friends for decades now, and our navies and air forces work together all the time.
Japanese aircrews go to places like Nevada, Hawaii, California, and Alaska for advanced training.
D.A.W.

Sorry, I mistyped. One of the trios was supposed to be few, less, least.
There is also far, further, furthest, where "further" does NOT mean the same as "farther".
D.A.W.