Question for the americans... Colander

Discussion in 'Research' started by big soft moose, Jun 7, 2021.

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  1. ruskaya

    ruskaya Contributor Contributor

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    not a pro, yet very curious
    I thought that this:
    [​IMG]

    is both a sieve and a strainer, depending on what it is used for:
    -- sieve for "separating" or breaking down dry food like flour;
    -- strainer for separating solids from liquids.

    A colander has the same function of a strainer but the design is optimized for certain kind of foods and actions, like taking pasta out of boiling water when cooked, or wash smaller/smaller-cut size vegetables.

    But I am never really sure . . . :superwink:


    EDIT: what is the thing for making tea (take the tea out of the hot water) called?

    SERIOUS EDIT: I corrected the spelling to "sieve" . . . seeing all those endings in "-er" I added a final "-r" to sieve and make it into a "siever" which is incorrect, though I don't feel bad because it does the job of sifting . . . :p
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2021
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  2. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    Twenty-seven posts over two pages about what to call a colander. I love this place.
     
  3. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    An Englishman asks Americans if they know what a colander is and it's a Russian who sets us all straight. I love this place.

    Usually it's just called a tea strainer. Sometimes a leaf strainer. I'm not aware of any other names for it.
     
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  4. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    "Tea ball"

    And that's what my Russian lady friend called it, too. I have one around here, somewhere, but I now have to drink decaf tea for health reasons. It's not easy to find bulk decaf tea, so I now use teabags almost exclusively.
     
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  5. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Also a street sport I believe. :D

    Yep, I forgot about the tea ball.
     
  6. Joe_Hall

    Joe_Hall I drink Scotch and I write things

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    It might come from an overgeneralization of "Americans". This country is huge so regional dialects and names for items can vary so wildly sometimes they are nearly unintelligible.

    Case in Point: I grew up in the upper portion of Michigan's lower peninsula. We call a dirt road made from the tires of traversing vehicles going out into the forest a "two-track into the boondocks". One of my college professors was from Maine and referred to the same thing as "a tote road into the willy-whacks". We also have oddities like soda being referred to as "pop". I never heard someone call it soda until I moved away. The particular part of Michigan I am from has some weird pronunciations of regular words as well: asphalt is pronounced "ash-fault" and favorite is pronounced "favor-write" to name a couple.

    While I would call it a colander, I could see someone from some other state/region having their own local name for it.
     
  7. Friedrich Kugelschreiber

    Friedrich Kugelschreiber marshmallow Contributor

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    we call it that in WA too
     
  8. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    "Goat track into the sagebrush" is what we have around here. I grew up where people said, "You want a coke?" "Sure." "What kind?" "Dr. Pepper." What other folks call coke, pop, and soda is what I've always called a soft drink. The little screened thingies that one puts loose tea in are called tea strainers at my house if they're shaped like strainers and tea balls if they're, well, tea balls.
     
  9. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    all the characters involved in this scene are American... its me that's British . This is the last book in a series that started with an American MC joining the RAF to fight in the early part of WW2 while America was still neutral.
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2021
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  10. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    Gotcha. Sorry. This week I'm in even a greater state of befuddlement than usual. Excuse me while I crawl over into a corner, suck my thumb, and babble senselessly for a while.
     
  11. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I know the poster here is banned, but just in case anyone else reading this thinks that would be a good idea...Pilots were officers (sometimes warrant officers) the only time a private would have got close to a plane was when he was polishing it...(or otherwise doing maintenance to it under the watchful eye of a crew chief)
     
  12. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    In the U.S. military, in Vietnam, all pilots of airplanes were commissioned officers, and they were Air Force, Navy, or Marine officers. Army officers didn't fly airplanes.

    Helicopters were flown by Army officers and warrant officers. Door gunners and crew chiefs were enlisted personnel.
     
  13. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    My characters are airforce

    However that's not entirely true, the army had pilots flying unarmed civilian planes like the O1 mostly for messenger and admin purposes, although the special forces had army spotter planes that did first and last check ins with the teams to ease the workload on the Airforce FACs

    Prior to 1966 the army also had heavy lift planes like the Caribou, but after the Johnson-McConnel agreement in '66 they transferred them to the airforce
     
  14. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    My neighbor was an Army Ranger (special forces) who para-dropped out of planes in Vietnam. Really cool guy, glad to know him. He taught me a lot about stoicism and we've had discussions ranging into philosophy (his favorite being Ayn Rand, but he also knows about all the classical Greeks). He's also an auto-didact who has degrees in many subjects and has excelled in many fields. Really remarkable man. Rode a Harley and hung out with a lot of tough-ass bikers who all called him Teach and treated him with great respect. Sorry, I veered off topic somewhere, but I can't bring him up without all that coming to mind.

    Wait what was this thread about? A colander?
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2021
  15. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    Yeah, but the topic sorta leaked away.
     
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  16. Catrin Lewis

    Catrin Lewis Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Community Volunteer

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    That sort of wire mesh thing is what we Yanks call a sieve, too.

    I grew up in the Midwest calling the thing pictured up top a strainer. "Colander" was thea word I learned for it when I was grown up and started shopping cookware catalogues.

    Well, actually when I was a kid, they were both called strainers. We only had the wire kind, and such fun you had if it was your turn to wash the dishes and you had to get the pasty spaghetti residue out from between the wires.

    "Colander" is good if you want to emphasize water passing through the holey object. "Swiss cheese" works if you're just focussing on the holes.
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2021
  17. Le Panda Du Mal

    Le Panda Du Mal Contributor Contributor

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    Calling Ayn Rand a "philosopher" is another quaint Americanism
     
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  18. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Your pasta was overcooked, haha.
     
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  19. Catrin Lewis

    Catrin Lewis Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Community Volunteer

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    I call it a strainer.
     
  20. Catrin Lewis

    Catrin Lewis Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Community Volunteer

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    I know. And I can't blame my mom because it was my sister's and my responsibility to get dinner on so it'd be ready when she got home from work.
     
  21. ruskaya

    ruskaya Contributor Contributor

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    Oooooh, the question in the edit was a joke . . . that it seems I only got :p I am bad at jokes :dead:

    and I am not Russian :whistle: I just found my username online while randomly clicking a bunch of pages. I liked the word so I used it to register here, hehe :geek:
     
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  22. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    A fake Russian giving advice on colanders. What's the world coming to?
     
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  23. Glen Barrington

    Glen Barrington Senior Member

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    The question is, as a 20 year old member of the USAF, would I have known it was called a colander? I didn't learn what a colander was until I got married to a woman who can COOK! An older man might know that it's a colander, but a young man in the 1960s to the mid 1970s? I don't think I would have known. I think I'd have called it a sieve out of ignorance. . . I'm MUCH smarter now.
     
  24. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    So consider the nature of your character- would he have known? My brother would have. It was and is a common object and a commonly used name. Alternatively you can have him say there are so many holes it looks like a cheese grater.
     
  25. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Yeah, I'd go with Swiss cheese. Think that's a pretty common phrase for something that's been shot to hell.
     
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