Sommelier (was to "maggie")

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Jul 21, 2008, at 9:44 AM, sagehen wrote:

>
> on 7/21/08 9:50 AM, Wilson Gray at hwgray at GMAIL.COM wrote:
>
>> I've never heard this word pronounced in English, so I have no
>> opinion. But, is it the case that being a wine writer and an
>> oenophile
>> makes a person also a sommelier?
>>
>> -Wilson
> ~~~~~~~~~
> Apparently it has taken on these & other meanings.  To me, it has
> only meant
> someone in charge of the wine who can inform about, recommend &
> serve it....
> but it has been years since my living standard included being in
> places that
> employed such folk.
> [As for coffee, while fussy about the beans, roast, variety that I
> buy to
> brew my own, I'm always simply annoyed by being asked to specify
> some style
> of coffee in a joint that seems to have everything in the way of
> flavorings,
> methods, additives & who-knows-what.  Usually their bare-bones
> coffee is
> pretty poor stuff! ]
> AM

(Always wanting a way to talk about coffee on any forum, I've found a
way to connect this back to American English)

Recently, a donut chain (Winchell's or Dunkin Donuts I think) ran a
commercial with customers moaning about the foreign language required
to order coffee. Their shtick was that you could order espresso at
their restaurants in English, but I think they were actually selling
products like "lattes" and "mochas".

(Here's the relevant part) I took this to be in part aiming for the
anti-foreign-language advocates in the US and partly in response to
people annoyed by all the options.

I don't watch TV a lot, but it appears this commercial is no longer
running. I don't know if it simply ran it's course or people decided
it's controversial, but I certainly found the anti-foreign-language
element annoying. BB

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