Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies

[venta]

I asked a question a few days ago: in the context of something you might eat for tea, what is a growler?

Not, despite suggestions, a beer bottle. And I probably couldn't eat a whole iceberg, even a small one. A growler, as huskyteer rightly (and firstly) said is a large pork pie.

I'd have said growler was a West Yorkshire term, but my faith was somewhat shaken when ar_gemlad didn't know it. Wikipedia thinks it is "a Yorkshire artisan pork pie". Artisan be buggered, it's all about the size in my book. If it isn't big enough to slice and share, it's no growler.

This question was prompted by seeing a stall advertising growlers at Glastonbury. I forget exactly what they were (some form of bacon burger?) but established fairly swiftly that they weren't what I was expecting.

I'm interested to note kotturinn's claim that it's any meat pie big enough to be "guaranteed to stop the growlings of a hungry stomach".

I'm distressed to note that lnr thinks I've asked this question before!

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the magic of LJ Archive: only three LJ entries of mine contain the word "growler". This one, the one from a few days ago, and the one from last Christmas Eve (http://venta.livejournal.com/498473.html) where I mentioned that we had a growler for tea (and footnoted what it was). LNR wins a kudo for paying attention ;)

[lnr]

Oh gosh! I think it's because I'm always surprised when it's a vaguely local dialect word I don't actually know - and probably because pork pie (especially at Christmas, and especially yorkshire style and not those rubbish melton mowbray ones) is one of my favourite things.

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

I note that you wisely drew a veil over any suggestions I may have made.

Fleetwood Mac, one of my favourite bands, and one I have so far managed to avoid seeing live. I did see a tribute band some years ago, while I was still in New Zealand. They played lots of Rumours songs, of course, but I seem to remember their set also featured Little Lies.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Actually, I have no idea who sang Little Lies, but you seem confident so may have a kudo anyway!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I am happy to confirm this!

I was tempted by the recent Rumours tour but it was hella expensive. I will look out for a tribute band :)

[kotturinn.livejournal.com]

I have no idea where I got that from though. Although one side of the family is from Yorkshire it wasn't a phrase we used, so it's possibly from a book somewhere/sometime (and if pushed, I'd probably say my brain has it pegged as more shaped more like a pasty than what we usually think of as pie). I've just asked a friend who was born and brought up in West Yorkshire. His reply, "A class 37 diesel is what springs to mind immediately.", doesn't help at all :-) The word doesn't ring any partcular bells with him as a food item. I wonder if it does for another friend (a Geordie), I may enquire.

[venta.livejournal.com]

The problem may well be that words can be very regional, and Yorkshire is very big. Even the West Riding by itself is quite large.

I am delighted by his answer, though, even if I dislike the taste of diesel :)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect the friend who told me about growlers to be making stuff up half the time. I've never heard anyone else say 'watter' for 'water', or 'snap' for 'some kind of meal'...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I have heard both those things said :)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

And you're not what I'd describe as aggressively northern :) Hmm, OK!

[venta.livejournal.com]

If you didn't pronounce it "watter", then:

Clitter-clatter,
Doon comes water

Would be a rubbish response to rain :)

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

Mike Elliott "Tyne, O Tyne, O coaly Tyne" and you omitted the great last line.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Ex-FIL says watter and I grew up saying snap, because my not-apparently-northern maternal family said it. (Grandad was a Geordie but I was at least 5 before I found that out as he'd lost his accent in the Navy, but not his dialect...)

[lnr]

I've heard both those used too. Snap or bait for your packed lunch in particular.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the context I expect. I'm a bait person, myself.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Snap comes (or at least used to) in a snap-tin (a tin which had clasps which made a snap noise), which is the etymology my dad gave me. My very southern husband now uses the term :)

I never pronounced it 'watter', but the rest of my family did/does.

I don't think growlers made it to Barnsley under that name, but I shall ask abart.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I'd be worried that the reason it's called a Growler is that it'll make your stomach growl after you've eaten it. :/