[HPforGrownups] Cracker Joke/tradespeople (OT)

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 7141

Jim said, about a cracker joke:

<<<The joke was:  "What do you call a man with a seagull on his head?"

Answer:  "Bill."

Can someone translate this from British into American for me?  Or are
cracker jokes not only bad, but pointless?>>>

Ebony's interpretation was correct, Jim.  Cracker jokes are usually rather
childish and long-in-the-tooth.  The one above is a bit more modern, part of
a series of "What do you call a man with a [...] on his head?" jokes,
another of which being [spade]=Doug.  My sides are aching...

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Dee said:

<<<<
<<<<<<<hygiene engineers>>>>>>>>>

, delivery officer and dairy distributor, but she still does it.
It's usually money... and in an envelope, not a box.

What on earth, Neil, is that?  (Another American lost in the waves of Briton
terms...)

Dairy Distributor--that's the Milkman, right?  The father of all the babies
in the local neighborhood that the mailman missed?

Delivery officer?????
>>>>

Sorry, Dee.  I was making a jokey point about the politically-correct names
we give tradespeople these days.  I made up 'dairy distributor'  (i.e.
milkman, er, I mean milkperson) but the other two are genuine, at least in
the minds of my local town council.   Hygiene engineers is what they call
the dustmen (I have yet to see a dustwoman, but I'm sure they exist).  I'm
sure this PC trend is not confined to the British, as it reflects a move
away from gender-specific terms, and it works both ways: I gather that
nurses are not called Sister or Matron any more, but Charge Nurse and Head
Nurse.

Neil
_____________________________________

Flying-Ford-Anglia

"Ron, full of turkey and cake and with nothing
mysterious to bother him, fell asleep almost
as soon as he'd drawn the curtains of his
four-poster."

[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]