Nice and Interesting for a Small fortune which is Pretty good.

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:

Carol: 
> As for which is the "proper" saying, I think our four variants amply 
> demonstrate that the "proper" version is
> regional. I've never heard any version except "tempest in a teapot"
> till now--never "tea cup." I'm guessing that mine is the standard
> American version. "Tea kettle," I assume, is the British version. As
> for "storm in a tea cup," it doesn't even alliterate! At least Steve's
> "proper" version alliterates. (It's probably an American variant like
> mine.)
> 
> I did a Google search with these results:
> 
> Storm in a teacup, 162,000 pages
> Tempest in a teapot, 115,000 pages
> Tempest in a teacup, 35,000 pages
> Tempest in a tea kettle, 163 pages (Tempest in a teakettle, 462 pages)
> 
> That makes Geoff's (British) version the winner and my (American)
> version a close second. Steve's "proper" version is a weak third, and
> New Steve's version (which also sounds British to me) a feeble fourth.

Geoff:
It may sound British but it ain't! In the UK, you can have "kettles", "teapots" 
but not "tea kettles".