British Terms
Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:29 pm
I'm almost done reading Ed Macy's APACHE, and was able to figure out most of the Brit slang and word usage, but this has me stumped. What's a 'Maff'?
The word is being used: "His coffin was draped in a Union flag and decorated with flower arrangements: Son, Brother and Maff."
I've tried the Urban Dictionary, and I don't think he's a British government agency (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) - is it another term for Uncle, or even Father? It's not in the back of the book either, where they have other terms like 'Piss Boy', and 'Sausage Side'.
What I also find interesting is they make a differentiation between CO (Commanding Officer) and OC (Officer Commanding).
Other than figuring out the Brit-speak, it's a GREAT book and I HIGHLY recommend it!
Apache pilot eyes are like human Chameleons:
The word is being used: "His coffin was draped in a Union flag and decorated with flower arrangements: Son, Brother and Maff."
I've tried the Urban Dictionary, and I don't think he's a British government agency (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) - is it another term for Uncle, or even Father? It's not in the back of the book either, where they have other terms like 'Piss Boy', and 'Sausage Side'.
What I also find interesting is they make a differentiation between CO (Commanding Officer) and OC (Officer Commanding).
Other than figuring out the Brit-speak, it's a GREAT book and I HIGHLY recommend it!
Apache pilot eyes are like human Chameleons:
The TADS monocle sat permanently over a pilot’s right iris, and a dozen different instrument readings from around the cockpit were projected into it. At the flick of a button, a range of other images could also be superimposed underneath the green glow of the instrument symbology, replicating the TADS’ camera images and the Longbow Radars’ targets.
The monocle left the pilot’s left eye free to look outside the cockpit, saving him the few seconds that it took to look down at the instruments, then up again—seconds that could mean the difference between our death and our enemy’s. New pilots suffered terrible headaches as the left and right eye competed for dominance. They started within minutes, long before takeoff. If you admitted to them, the instructor grounded you immediately—so none of us ever did.
As the eyes adjusted over the following weeks and months, the headaches took longer to set in. It was a year before mine disappeared altogether. During a sortie I once filmed my face with a video camera as an experiment. My eyes whirled independently of each other throughout, like a man possessed.
“That’s disgusting,” my wife Emily said when I showed her the tape. “But does it mean you can read two books at once?”
I tried it. I could.
