Urban Garlic

Has anyone seen the new Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercial where the angel says she just came back from a long shift at the pearly gates?

She said she was settling down with a snack of her favourite flavour of Philadelphia Cream Cheese: urban garlic.

Urban garlic? What’s wrong with rural garlic?

Then my wife reminded me that Americans pronounce ‘herb’ as ‘erb’. So, it’s not urban garlic after all, but ‘herb n’ garlic’.

Ah. The beauty of being bombarded by media from a foreign country. Sometimes, I wish I had closed captioning.

10 thoughts on “Urban Garlic

  1. Hahahaha… came upon your blog at random and glad I did… that’s one of the funniest things I’ve read all week. Thanks for the laugh. :)

    Take care.

  2. *laughing* Very funny. (smile) During my stint in Briton, I had more than one confusion concerning the language differences. That is funny.

    Here is one…

    While we were dating, I decided to take my husband home to meet my folks. My father, a BBQer, had steaks on the grill. He dished up the biggest one for my date, and we all sat down to eat. The rest of the food was passed around, and we each took our fill of what ever we wanted. My date, took the bowl of this greeny looking stuff. Before tasting it, he spread it all over his steak. My father’s jaw dropped. He had just spread pastachio pudding on his meat. He ate it all, but was very surprised. The thought it was some kind of mint sauce.

    *grin*

  3. herb Audio pronunciation of “herb” ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ûrb, hûrb)
    n.

    1. A plant whose stem does not produce woody, persistent tissue and generally dies back at the end of each growing season.
    2. Any of various often aromatic plants used especially in medicine or as seasoning.
    3. Slang. Marijuana.

    [Middle English herbe, from Old French erbe, from Latin herba.]herby adj.

    Usage Note: The word herb, which can be pronounced with or without the (h), is one of a number of words borrowed into English from French. The (h) sound had been lost in Latin and was not pronounced in French or the other Romance languages, which are descended from Latin, although it was retained in the spelling of some words. In both Old and Middle English, however, h was generally pronounced, as in the native English words happy and hot. Through the influence of spelling, then, the h came to be pronounced in most words borrowed from French, such as haste and hostel. In a few other words borrowed from French the h has remained silent, as in honor, honest, hour, and heir. And in another small group of French loan words, including herb, humble, human, and humor, the h may or may not be pronounced depending on the dialect of English. In British English, herb and its derivatives, such as herbaceous, herbal, herbicide, and herbivore, are pronounced with h. In American English, herb and herbal are more often pronounced without the h, while the opposite is true of herbaceous, herbicide, and herbivore, which are more often pronounced with the h.

  4. “In British English, herb and its derivatives, such as herbaceous, herbal, herbicide, and herbivore, are pronounced with h. In American English, herb and herbal are more often pronounced without the h, while the opposite is true of herbaceous, herbicide, and herbivore, which are more often pronounced with the h.”

    Like I said…

  5. Kim, you’re from Alberta? Is the US the foreign country bombarding you with media?

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