In the centre/center of things

Hi there

When I was a kid in the early 1950's, my friend (Jean-Marie) and I went to the movies as often as we could.  Yay, bring on Audie Murphy who usually got shot at, like, 10 times in every western but still staggered around the town before killing the baddie and claiming the rancher's daughter.

But in those days, New Zealanders never said that they were "going to the movies".  They were "going to the ... pictures".

Jean-Marie and I read Archie Andrews comics.  Archie talked about 'movies', not 'pictures'.  So, we did too.  Everyone looked on us as if we were mad -

"Hey, Mum, we're off to the movies -"

"You're what?"

"The movies." Mum looked puzzled.  I sighed.  "The pictures!  The pictures, okay?"  

And today ... I got to thinking about word spellings from the United States that have completely taken over from New Zealand's english heritage language.

For example:

English -  gaol

US - jail

English - capital

US - capitol

English - centre

US - center

English - pyjamas

US  - pajamas

In the fifties, I loved doughnuts.  They were big balls of dough, split by cream and jam and covered in icing sugar.  So delicious, with a crispy skin.  I would have a "Harry Met Sally" moment (the junior non-naughty version) whenever I ate one.  

Now we have 'donuts', circles with a hole in the middle and with icing on the top.  Nice and tasty but nowhere near as yummy as a "doughnut". 

And what about the word 'programme'?  It's on the way out. 'Program' is on the way in ....

Of course, it can go the other way around.  Way-back-when New Zealand had an everything-except-groceries department chain store called:  Woolworths.   I used to think it was part of the famous United States chain (think Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, the Paris Hilton of her day) until a friend pointed out to me that it was all about the apostrophe.  NZ had the apostrophe after the 's', ie Woolworths'.  In America it was "Woolworth's".   Goodness, did we blatantly copy-cat?  And Woolworths Supermarket from Australia arrived here some years ago.  It disappeared for a few years but is now due back again within a few weeks.  Don't ask me to sort out the do's and don'ts of the name;  I've given up....