An old friend of mine
Trying to describe an ethnic group from somewhere around the Mediterranean. She wanted to give the impression that they were oppressed and put-upon by their neighbours. "They're the Jews of the Eastern Med," she said. We pointed out that the Israelis were probably the Jews of the Eastern Med. And then mocked her a bit.

And I'm sure that somebody else has already pointed it out, but nappies were originally called napkins. My grandparents' generation (and possibly a few of my parrents' generation) called them napkins.

(Not that I'm saying Israel is oppressed rather than an oppressor. It was her point, not mine.)

Edit: That's the trouble with this "mocking stupid people" question of the week. There's been a lot of bashing Yanks for not knowing the geography of Europe, but how much do we know about the geography of the States? I remember being acutely embarrassed while reading the coverage of the last US election when I realised that I couldn't accurately point out where North Carolina was (other than being above South Carolina, which I also couldn't place).
( foop, Thu 13 Jan 2005, 16:28, Reply)