Subj : Re: Some observations To : Paul Quinn From : alexander koryagin Date : Fri Jul 06 2018 22:01:02 From: alexander koryagin Hi, Paul Quinn! I read your message from 16.04.2014 08:51 ak>> In Russia we also produce china caps. Such a cap always has a ak>> handle. So it is more difficult to produce it. In hard time, ak>> especially after WW2 when all utensils were broken :) glasses and ak>> saucers (and tea spoons) became the main mean for tea drinking. PQ> Caps? China cups. Yes. I used to have my own (favourite) tea cup PQ> and saucer in my teenaged years. Shame on me! Cups! ;) It is probably my bad pronunciation. ;=) But it supports my main English rule - you should never say short phrases. You should speak adding many context words. In this case you'll be understood! :) ak>> It must be said that there also was another tea set. It consisted ak>> of a glass (with a teaspoon) and a special metal glass holder ak>> (podstakannik in Russian). It has been widely used in trains, ak>> canteens etc. A waiter takes a tea tray, puts glasses on it, in ak>> glass holders, and carries it along the train, canteen etc. As you ak>> can see if they would use glasses with saucers they could carry ak>> much less glasses per one tray. PQ> I have seen this metal glass holder at least once in a film. I've PQ> spotted its use at the 33 minute mark in the 'The Hunt for Red PQ> October' movie from 1990. I have seen such things used in other PQ> films as well. E. g. I suspect a senior Police official may have PQ> been using one in the 'Gorky Park' film from 1983 but I don't have PQ> a copy to check. PQ> Yes, I can imagine that a cup holder would essentially turn a glass PQ> into a shape similar to a coffee cup. Such things would be more PQ> useful, and less awkward, than cups & saucers. Russians also like glass holders because they can be made of gold and silver. ;-) BTW, here is a joke about a Russian way to drink tea. One Japanese waiter said that he always knows how to tell if a man is Russian when he drinks tea. He said that all Russians don't take tea spoons out of the glass when drinking, and they press them with a big finger, in the process of drinking. A Russian man decided to deceive the waiter and started to drink tea without a tea spoon. But when he left the coffee shop that waiter said to him: "Spasibo, prohodite esche!" ("Thank you, come again" in Russian). The Russian man asked him, "How have you guessed that I am a Russian?" "You drink tea like a Russian," answered the waiter. "But did I have tea with a tea spoon taken out?" "Yes, you did," answered the waiter. "But you've got a habit to close your eye when you drink tea." Bye, Paul! Alexander Koryagin fido7.english-tutor 2014 --- ifmail v.2.15dev5.4 * Origin: NPO RUSnet InterNetNews site (2:5020/400) .