saucering tea

[Garson O'Toole]

In 2008 Ben Zimmer initiated a thread on the ADS list by posting about
pouring coffee into a saucer to cool it. His note pointed to an
article in the New York Times "After the Imperial Presidency" dated
November 7, 2008. Here is an excerpt:

"Why did you pour that coffee into your saucer?" Washington reportedly replied.
"To cool it," Jefferson answered.
"Even so," Washington said, "we pour our legislation into the
senatorial saucer to cool it."

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ADS-L;7NSNhw;200811092313420500B
Short version:
http://goo.gl/u5k5z

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/magazine/09power-t.html
Short version:
http://goo.gl/7xC0q


On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:57 PM, Barbara Need <bhneed at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Barbara Need <bhneed at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: saucering tea
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There does not seem to be a discussion of this, at least not by
> searching for saucer tea--There is a reference in May 2010 (Wilson):
>
> though *we* always used "deaf" in our household, *many* very close
> relatives and family friends used "deef," a phenomenon almost as
> startling as seeing these same people drinking coffee and tea from the
> saucer after pouring it from the cup.
>
> And another in July 2010 (also Wilson) about his reaction to hearing
> someone younger than he using _for to_:
>
> the way that seeing East-TX country cousins pour coffee from the cup
> into the saucer and then drink it from there caught my eye.
>
> Barbara
>
> Barbara Need
> Ithaca
>
> On 9 Mar 2011, at 6:00 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>
>> I'm sure that this topic was batted about here recently, but the ADS-
>> L archives do not seem to cover very recent material, so I can't
>> confirm my memory.
>>
>> In any event, the practice is alluded to in "Etiquette BLues", by
>> The Happiness Boys, receorded in the mid or late 1920s,
>
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